Etymologically
Log in

demise

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 00:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /dɪˈmaɪz/[1]

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

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