cease

Pronunciation

• IPA: /siːs/ (UK); /sis/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cesen, cessen, borrowed from Old French cesser (“to come to an end, stop”),^[2][3][4] from Latin cessāre, to cease, go slowly, be idle, a frequentative of cēdere, to go away, withdraw, yield (see cede),^[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ked-, to go, yield.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stop moving, acting or speaking; to come to an end: about 1300.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

To rest (1382) and to cease to exist, die out (1382), are obsolete senses.^[6] The transitive sense, to put a stop to, now rare, is from the late 14th century (1393).^[3][6] The noun, cessation, is also from about 1300, now archaic and surviving in without cease.^[3][7] Ceaseless is from 1586, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, and cease-fire from 1918.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to stop.^[2]
• 1393 – to put a stop to.^[6]
• 1586 – ceaseless.^[2]
• 1918 – cease-fire.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To come to an end; to stop.
2. To stop doing something; to desist.
3. To put an end to; to discontinue.

Noun

1. (archaic) Cessation, now in without cease.

Word family

• ceaseless
• unceasing
• unceased

Related words

• cessation
• cede
• secede
• incessant
• ceasefire

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press