demise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dimisse, also demise,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman demise,^[4][5][6][7] the noun use of the feminine past participle of Old French desmettre (“to send away, dismiss, (reflexive) to resign, abdicate”),^[8][5][7] modern démettre.^[4][7] The OED notes that the noun is not recorded in Old French but is regularly formed, like mise and remise.^[8] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1308–09, for resignation from office, divestment and death.^[9] The French verb is formed from des- (“away”), from Latin dis-, and metre (“to put”), from Latin mittō (“to let go, send”).^[4][2] Dictionary.com, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Skeat trace the verb to Latin dīmittō (“to send away”),^[3][6][10] the source of dismiss, whereas Merriam-Webster and Weekley give Latin dēmittō (“to send down, lower”).^[11][12] The OED adds that, since the prefix looks like Latin dē-, English speakers have tended to understand the word as "handing down" or "laying down".^[8] It is related to demit and mission.^[2][13][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The transfer of an estate by will: 1442, spelled dimisse, in the Proceedings of the Privy Council.^[2][14] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century, as the transfer of property or a grant of land for life or for a number of years.^[4] The OED's first record of the noun is from an act of Henry VIII of 1509–10,^[8] and its first record of the verb, to convey an estate by will or lease, is from 1480;^[8] Barnhart finds the verb as dimisen in the Rolls of Parliament in 1447.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A legal word for the conveyance of an estate by will or lease, it was then used for the transfer of sovereignty when a ruler died or was deposed, usually in demise of the crown.^[4][8][7] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1540s, the OED to 1689.^[4][8] Because such a transfer was occasioned by death, the word came to mean death itself,^[8][2][12] first in Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison (1753), according to the OED,^[8] and by 1754 according to Etymonline and Barnhart;^[4][2] at first it was used especially of the death of a sovereign or other important person, but it also became a euphemism for death.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as death or decease, "seldom used but in formal and ceremonious language".^[15] The verb likewise came to mean to die from 1727, a use the OED calls rare.^[8][2] Modern dictionaries also record a figurative sense, the end or failure of something such as an institution or an enterprise.^[16][11][6]

Timeline

• 1442 – noun, dimisse, transfer of an estate by will.^[2]
• 1447 – verb, dimisen, to transfer an estate by will.^[2]
• 1509 – noun, conveyance of an estate by will or lease.^[8]
• 1541 – verb, to let go, dismiss (obsolete by 1610).^[8]
• 1689 – transfer of sovereignty, demise of the crown.^[8]
• 1727 – verb, to die.^[8][2]
• 1753 – death.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person's death, used formally or as a euphemism: The novel opens shortly after the old duke's demise.^[16][11][6]
2. The end or failure of something: the demise of the local newspaper.^[16][11][6]
3. (law) The conveyance or transfer of an estate by will or lease.^[16][11][8]
4. The transfer of sovereignty to a successor on the death or abdication of a ruler, as in demise of the crown.^[16][11][8]

Verb

1. (law) To convey or grant an estate by will or lease.^[16][11][8]
2. To transmit a title or sovereignty by succession or inheritance.^[11][8][6]
3. To pass by inheritance or bequest.^[16][11][8]
4. (rare) To die.^[11][8]

Word family

• demisable
• demisability
• nondemise
• undemised

Related words

• demission
• demit
• dismiss
• mission
• remise

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. ^ a b c d e f Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins