Etymologically
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arrest

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈrest/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aresten,[2][3] borrowed from Old French arester (“to stay, stop”) (12th century, modern arrêter),[4][2][5] from Vulgar Latin *arrestāre “to stop, restrain”,[4][2][3] from ad “to” and Latin restāre “to stop, remain behind”,[4][2][6] from re- “back” and stāre “to stand”,[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand”).[4] The second r was added in English to restore what was thought to be the original Latin form.[2] It is related to rest “remainder” and stand.[5][7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Intransitive, to stop, halt, and to remain: about 1325 in the OED, senses now obsolete.[8] To stop a person, or a thing in motion, and to seize and restrain legally: 1375, in John Barbour's The Bruce.[2][8] The noun, a stopping: also 1375.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense of the noun, the taking of a person into custody to answer a charge, is from the early 15th century.[4] The literal sense of stopping a person has been obsolete since about 1600, except of a course of action,[8] but stopping a process or movement survives, as in arrested development.[9][8] To catch and hold the attention is from 1814.[4] In medicine, cardiac arrest gave the intransitive verb “to suffer cardiac arrest” in 1982.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1325 – to stop, halt (obsolete).[8]
  • 1375 – to seize legally; noun, a stopping.[2][8]
  • early 15th century – noun, legal custody.[4]
  • 1814 – to catch the attention.[4]
  • 1982 – to suffer cardiac arrest.[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To seize and hold a person by legal authority.
  2. To stop or check the progress of: arrest the decline.
  3. To catch and hold the attention.
  4. (medicine) To suffer cardiac arrest.

Noun

  1. The act of arresting a person, or the state of being arrested: under arrest.
  2. A stopping or checking: cardiac arrest.

Word family

  • arrester
  • arrestment
  • arrestable
  • postarrest
  • prearrest
  • arrestee
  • rearrest
  • arresting

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin