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ease

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Pronunciation

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

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)