Permission to depart or a formal farewell; also an architectural term for a concave molding.
From Old French 'congé,' derived from Latin 'commeatus' (leave of absence). The architectural meaning comes from the curved shape resembling a farewell gesture.
Conge is one of those elegant old words that shows up in formal letters—'by your conge' meant someone had official permission to leave, which was important when travel needed authorization.
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