encaenia

See also: Encaenia

English

Alternative forms

• encenia

Etymology

From Latin encaenia, from Ancient Greek (τὰ) ἐγκαίνια ((tà) enkaínia, “dedication festival”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + καινός (kainós, “new”).

Noun

encaenia

1. A festival held to mark the anniversary of the dedication of a church or temple; (especially), of the Temple at Jerusalem.
2. The annual commemoration service of founders and benefactors of Oxford University.
   • 1773, Joshua Reynolds, in John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale 2000, p. 43:

     I am but just returned from two great shews that have been exhibited lately the review at Portsmouth and the encenia at Oxford.

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἐγκαίνια (enkaínia).

Noun

encaenia n pl (genitive encaeniōrum); second declension

1. (plural only) A consecration or dedication festival

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter), plural only.

Case	Plural
Nominative	encaenia
Genitive	encaeniōrum
Dative	encaeniīs
Accusative	encaenia
Ablative	encaeniīs
Vocative	encaenia

Derived terms

• encaeniō

References

• “encaenia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• encaenia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• encaenia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.