Meaning

noun a Chinese rice gruel eaten for breakfast

noun (architecture) a concave molding

noun formal permission to depart

originFrom late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“to go and come”), from con- + meō (“to go, to pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0