demur

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English demuren, also demeoren and demeren,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French demorer (“to delay, linger”), also demourer and demurer,^[4][5][6][7] with the Anglo-Norman form demurer, recorded from 1121–25.^[8][9][10] The French verb, now French demeurer (“to remain, stay, reside”),^[6][11] is from Vulgar Latin *dēmorō,^[12][5][11] for Latin dēmoror (“to linger, tarry, delay”),^[11][7][6] formed from dē-, here intensive,^[12][13] and moror (“to delay”), from mora (“a pause, delay”).^[7][6][4] Compare Spanish demorar and Italian dimorare.^[11] The noun is inherited from Middle English demure, also demere, borrowed from Old French demore, also demor, and French demeure, a verbal noun from the same verb.^{[2][3][11][4]} The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1113–19.^[10]

The unstressed Old French stem was later assimilated to the stressed one, which gave the Middle English spellings above.^[11] According to Hoad, the present spelling begins in the 16th century and appears to be based on demurrer.^[5] Beyond Latin, Barnhart connects mora with memor (“mindful”) under Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer-, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise refers it to memory;^[4][3] de Vaan instead reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *morh₂-.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To linger or wait: Ȝef ich hihi forðward, demeori ȝe þe lengre, in the Ancrene Riwle, in a manuscript of about 1230 of a text perhaps from before 1200.^[2][11] This is why Barnhart gives "probably before 1200" and Etymonline about 1200.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Ayto traces the line from "stay, linger" through "delay" and "hesitate in uncertainty" to "raise objections", a meaning reached only in the 17th century.^[12] The law had a part in the last step: a demurrer, a noun use of the Anglo-French infinitive, is a plea that stops an action until a point is settled.^[7][4][5] The legal verb is recorded from 1620, the sense "object" from 1639,^[11][4] and Etymonline takes the second to come from the first;^[7] the OED says the current sense often alludes to the legal one.^[11]

The noun went the same way, from delay and abode through hesitation to an objection.^[11][15] Johnson (1755) records the stage in between, defining the noun as doubt or hesitation, with Milton's deep silence and demur, and the verb both as delaying a process in law and as pausing in uncertainty.^[16] The sense "linger" was gone by the later 17th century, and "hesitate" by the early 19th.^[11][15] In Scots the noun could also mean a plight, as in an Aberdeenshire poem of 1790.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – to linger, tarry, wait (obsolete by 1653).^[11][2]
• before 1300 – noun, delay, lingering (obsolete by 1675).^[11][2] Barnhart dates it about 1250.^[4]
• 1444 – noun, stay, abode (obsolete by 1673).^[11]
• before 1575 – noun, in law, a demurrer (obsolete by 1726).^[11]
• 1581 – noun, hesitation, a state of doubt (obsolete by 1824).^[11]
• 1613 – transitive, to put off, delay (until 1682).^[11]
• 1620 – in law, to put in a demurrer.^[11][4]
• 1639 – to raise an objection or make difficulties; noun, an objection.^[11][4]
• 1642 – to hesitate, pause in uncertainty (obsolete by 1818).^[11]
• 1827 – transitive, to object to (rare).^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To raise objections or show reluctance, often with to or at: The treasurer demurred at the cost of the new roof.^[18][3][11]
2. (law) To enter a demurrer.^[18][3][11]
3. (rare) To object to something, used with a direct object.^[11][15]
4. (archaic) To hesitate or delay.^[18][3][15]
5. (obsolete, c. 1230–1653) To linger, tarry or wait.^[11][15]

Noun

1. An objection, or the act of objecting, frequent in without demur: She signed the contract without demur.^{[18][3][11][15]}
2. (archaic) Hesitation or indecision.^[18][3]
3. (obsolete, before 1300–1675) Delay or waiting.^[11][15]
4. (obsolete, before 1575–1726) In law, the same as a demurrer.^[11][15]

Word family

• demurrable
• demurral
• demurrer

Related words

• demurrage
• demure
• moratorium
• moratory

Usage notes

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, demur is often confused with the adjective demure, which probably comes from the same French word, influenced by Old French mur (“grave”).^[19]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press