cessation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cessacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French cessation^[3][5][2] and directly borrowed from Latin cessātiō (“a delaying, idling, ceasing”),^{[6][7][5][8][2]} a noun of action from cessātus, past participle of cessō (“to delay, be idle, stop”),^{[3][4][9][10]} the source of cease.^[3][8] The Latin verb is formed on cessus (“yielded”), past participle of cēdō (“to yield”),^[11][12][10] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *ked- (“to go, yield”).^[7] The OED notes that in English it is in practice treated as a noun of action from cease with the suffix -ation.^[6] The Anglo-Norman word, meaning an end, is recorded from 1338.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ceasing or stopping: before 1400, in the Coventry Mysteries, in the OED.^[6] The MED and Barnhart first find it in 1447, in Bokenham's lives of saints, of the endless revolution of the heavens, as cessacyoun;^[2][5] Etymonline gives the mid-15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word also meant interruption of an activity^[2][7] and the giving up of an office, as in Capgrave's chronicle, where the king's act of cessacion was read in the Tower;^[2][6] this last sense was obsolete by 1640.^[6] In the 17th century a cessation, short for a cessation of arms, was an armistice or truce (1628–1754),^[6][14] and the word also meant inactivity or idleness (1603–1697).^[6][4] Johnson (1755) gave "a stop; a rest; a vacation" as the first sense.^[15] Today it is a fairly formal word for a pause or an end, as in a cessation of hostilities.^[12][4]

Timeline

• before 1400 – ceasing, stoppage.^[6]
• 1447 – cessacyoun, of the heavens moving without stopping.^[2][5]
• before 1464 – the giving up of an office (obsolete by 1640).^[6][2]
• 1603 – inactivity, idleness (obsolete).^[6]
• 1628 – a truce or armistice (obsolete by 1754).^[6][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ceasing or stopping, either for a time or for good; a pause or end: a cessation of fighting along the border.^[12][4][6]
2. (obsolete) Inactivity; idleness.^[4][6][14]
3. (obsolete, 1628–1754) A truce or armistice.^[6][14]

Related words

• cession
• cease
• cede
• incessant
• ceasefire

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.