DictionaryRoot: mommerie
Old French

mommerie

masked performance

1 / 1
A pompous ribbon-cutting ceremony for nothing: a formally dressed woman solemnly snips a ribbon stretched between two freestanding posts on otherwise empty ground, while a formally dressed man presents the loose ribbon end on a velvet cushion with exaggerated gravity.
noun

mummery

MUM-er-ee/ˈmʌməri/

A showy but meaningless display of ceremony or pretence.

Etymology

Mommerie belonged to masked performance, and mummery initially meant a show of that kind. The theatrical sense became a disparaging label for ceremony or pretense treated as mere performance.

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