congee

Etymology 1

From late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“I go and come”), from con- + meō (“I go, I pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé.

noun

1. Leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly):
   1. (obsolete) Formal permission to leave; a passport.
2. (obsolete) Formal dismissal; (figurative) any dismissal; (originally & particularly humorously ironic) abrupt dismissal without ceremony.
3. (obsolete) Formal leavetaking; (figurative) any farewell.
4. (obsolete, Scotland) A fee paid to make another go away, (particularly) alms to a persistent beggar.
5. (archaic) A bow, curtsey, or other gesture (originally) made at departure but (later) including at greeting or in obeissance or respect.
   His speech thus spake the Moor, and took his leave, he and his meiny where the bátels lay: formal farewells to chief and crews he gave, exchanging congees with due courtesy. 1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume I, page 23

verb

1. (archaic) To give congee, (particularly)
   1. (obsolete, transitive) To give formal permission to leave; to dismiss.
   2. (obsolete, transitive) To give formal permission to do something; to license.
2. (archaic) To take congee: to leave ceremoniously.
3. (archaic) To make a congee: to bow, curtsey, etc., (particularly dialectal) while leaving; (figurative) to make obeissance, show respect, or defer to someone or something.

Etymology 2

From Tamil கஞ்சி (kañci), possibly via Portuguese canje.

noun

1. (Asian cooking) A type of thick rice porridge or soup, sometimes prepared with vegetables and/or meat.
   In a past life in Fuzhou, it represented some reality other than the one of daily congee and pickled turnips, cabbage and boiled rip soup. 2022, Ling Ma, “Peking Duck”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux