Etymology
Uncertain.
- The word formally matches Sanskrit कर्मन् (kárman, “action, deed; karma”), as if both were from Proto-Indo-European *kʷermon-, itself an abstract noun formed from Proto-Indo-European *kʷer- (“to do, make”).
- According to de Vaan, it's a derivation from the unattested adjective *caerus + -mōnia also found as the second part of the compound sincērus (“whole, sound”); however, if so, the expected outcome of the latter would be *sincīrus.
- Roman folk etymology held this word as coming from the name of the city of Caere.
References
- “caerimonia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “caerimonia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- caerimonia 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)
- caerimonia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to invoke an irrevocable curse on the profanation of sacred rites: violatas caerimonias inexpiabili religione sancire (Tusc. 1. 12. 27)
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 81