homage

What it means

1. countableuncountableA demonstration of respect, as towards a person after his or her retirement or death.

   It’s appropriate that we pay homage to them and the sacrifices they made.

   2006, “New York Times”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

   3 more examples

   I ſought no homage from the Race that vvrite; / I kept, like Aſian Monarchs, from their ſight: […]

   1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 11, lines 214–215

   When a man squeezes the hand of a pretty woman, […] she will consider such an impertinent freedom in the light of an insult, if she have any true delicacy, instead of being flattered by this unmeaning homage to beauty.

   1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC

   My rainy-day tour in April during the first lockdown was, in fact, a homage to Sir John Betjeman - the poet and railway campaigner whose statue can be found on the upper concourse of St Pancras station.

   2021 January 13, Christian Wolmar, “Read all about London’s Cathedrals of Steam”, in RAIL, number 922, page 62

   Synonyms: salute, tribute · Antonyms: insult

2. countableAn artistic work imitating another in a flattering style.

   He likes to tell people that it's a Hitchcockian thriller, but that's kind of like saying Happy Gilmore is a homage to Woody Allen.

   2002, Kevin Williamson, Dawson's Creek (TV, episode 6.01)

3. countablehistoricaluncountableIn feudalism, the formal oath of a vassal to honor his or her lord's rights.

   We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee, / Love thee as our commander and our king.

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   Synonyms: manred

In a sentence

I ſought no homage from the Race that vvrite; / I kept, like Aſian Monarchs, from their ſight: […]

1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 11, lines 214–215

Where it comes from

1. Latinhomō“a man, in Medieval Latin a vassal”
2. Medieval Latinhomināticum“homage, the service of a vassal or 'man'”
3. Old Frenchhomage
4. Middle Englishhomage
5. Englishhomage

From Middle English homage, from Old French homage, hommage, from Medieval Latin homināticum (“homage, the service of a vassal or 'man'”), from Latin homō (“a man, in Medieval Latin a vassal”) + -āticum (noun-forming suffix). The American pronunciations in /-ɑːʒ/ and with silent h are due to confusion with the nearly synonymous doublet hommage, which is indeed pronounced /oʊˈmɑːʒ/.