ease

Pronunciation

• IPA: /iːz/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English eise, ese, borrowed from Old French aise (“comfort, pleasure; opportunity; elbow-room”) (Anglo-French ese),^[2][3][4] of uncertain origin.^[3][2] Watkins, the MWU, Hoad and the SOED derive it from Latin adiacēns (“lying near”), the participle of adiacēre (see adjacent),^[3][5][4][6] but Barnhart notes that the sounds and the gap in meaning argue against this.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Opportunity or means, and comfort or convenience: before 1225 in the OED, probably before 1200 in Barnhart.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Absence of pain is from before 1225, and leisure, freedom from toil, from 1393.^[7] At ease is from the late 14th century,^[3] and as a military order, standing at ease, from 1802.^[7][3] Facility, as in with ease, is from 1610.^[7] The verb meant to help about 1300, and to relieve pain or care from the mid-14th century;^[3][2] to make less difficult is from the 1630s, and to relax one's efforts from 1863, with ease up by 1907.^[3]

Timeline

• a1225 – opportunity; comfort.^[7]
• c. 1300 – the verb, to help.^[3]
• mid-14th century – to relieve pain.^[3]
• 1610 – with ease.^[7]
• 1802 – at ease (military).^[7]
• 1863 – to relax one's efforts.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Lack of difficulty: she won with ease.
2. Freedom from worry, pain or effort; comfort.
3. Relaxed, natural manner.

Verb

1. To make pain or worry less.
2. To become or make less severe or intense.
3. To move slowly and carefully: eased the box into place.

Word family

• easeful
• easefully
• heartsease
• misease
• unease
• chapel of ease
• ill at ease

Related words

• disease
• easy
• easiness
• adjacent
• malaise

Usage notes

In Yorkshire dialect, a different ease means to splash with mud.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b 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. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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)