pageant

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an elaborate public spectacle, procession, or competition

   The town staged a historical pageant each summer.

Simplified etymology

Pageant probably entered Middle English through Anglo-Norman from Latin pagina, also the source of page. It first meant either a religious play or the movable platform on which one was performed. The semantic link is disputed: it may refer to a play derived from a written page, or to a temporary stage assembled or “fastened” together, reflecting Latin pangere; the modern sense of a showy parade appeared in the early 19th century.

From Middle English pagent, pageant 'a scene of a mystery play, movable stage', from Anglo-Latin pagina, perhaps from Latin pagina 'page, leaf' (in the sense of a section of a play); of uncertain development, with the final -t unexplained.

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