appease

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English appesen, also apesen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman apeser,^[5][4][6] from Old French apaisier, also apeser and apeiser, now French apaiser,^[7][4][8][9] "to bring to peace, pacify".^[3][4] The Old French verb is formed from a (“to”), from Latin ad,^[7][10][2] and pais (“peace”),^[7][10][11] from pāx (“peace”);^[7][10][8] Etymonline and Skeat derive it from the phrase a pais, "to peace".^[3][9] The OED notes that it is a later and more literal formation from the same parts as apaier, from Vulgar Latin *adpācō, the source of apay,^[7][12] and Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories sends the reader to pay.^[13] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1121–25, with the senses to pacify, calm, settle a war or dispute, and reconcile.^[14] In the 14th century the English verb was also shortened to pese; in the 15th it was refashioned with a double “p”, and the spelling appease comes from the spelling reform of the 16th century, when a form apeace, assimilated to peace, also occurred.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bring to peace, settle or quiet strife or disorder: 1330, in Mannyng's Chronicle.^[7] Etymonline dates it to about 1300 in the sense "to reconcile",^[3] and Barnhart also gives about 1300.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb was used of quieting conflict, of people as well as of strife.^[7][14] By the 1370s Chaucer used it for soothing anger and propitiating an angry person, and for relieving pain or grief;^[7][3] he has the verb 13 times and Gower 10 times.^[15] In the 16th century it came to mean satisfying a desire or appetite (1549) and placating someone by giving in to their demands (1561).^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to quiet; to put in a state of peace".^[16] The political sense of buying peace from an aggressor with concessions is tied to the policy of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain from 1937 to 1939 and is recorded from 1939;^[7] the noun appeasement had been used in international politics since 1919, and became pejorative only after that policy failed.^[3] A noun appease, an appeasing, was used from about 1330 to 1667.^[7]

Timeline

• 1330 – to settle strife, to bring to peace.^[7]
• c. 1374 – to pacify anger; to propitiate an angry person; to relieve pain or grief, in Chaucer.^[7]
• c. 1380 – to bring peace to people in conflict.^[7]
• 1430 – the noun appeasement, pacification.^[7]
• 1549 – to satisfy a desire or appetite.^[7]
• 1561 – to placate a person by giving in to demands.^[7]
• 1939 – in politics, of placating an aggressor with concessions.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pacify or placate someone, especially by giving in to their demands; in politics, to try to avert aggression by making concessions: The council tried to appease the protesters with a new survey.^[17][2][7]
2. To satisfy or ease a hunger, thirst or desire: A cup of soup appeased his hunger.^[17][2][7]
3. To calm or settle a quarrel or disorder; to bring to a state of peace.^[2][7][5]

Word family

• appeasable
• appeasably
• appeaser
• appeasement
• appeasableness
• appeasingly
• unappeased

Related words

• peace
• pay
• apay
• pacify
• pacific

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins