intermit

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin intermittō (“to leave off, leave an interval, omit, suspend”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from inter (“between”) and mittō (“to send, let go, put”).^[2][3][6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To interrupt a person or an action: the OED's first record is from 1557,^[2] but Etymonline has this sense in the 1540s and Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to about 1542.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The first English senses, to interrupt and to omit, died out in the 1690s.^[2] The sense that survives, to leave off for a time, is recorded from 1576,^[2] and intransitive use, to stop for a time, from before 1604.^[2] From 1659 it was used of a fever or a pulse.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines it as to forbear something for a time or to interrupt, and quotes Hooker on nature intermitting her course.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds a technical use, of a spark made to come and go at intervals.^[7]

Timeline

• 1557 – to interrupt a person or an action (obsolete by 1698).^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1540s.^[3]
• 1570 – to omit, leave out or let slip (obsolete by 1692).^[2]
• 1576 – to leave off or discontinue for a time; to suspend.^[2] Etymonline has the 1570s.^[3]
• before 1604 – intransitive, to cease for a time; to be intermittent.^[2]
• 1659 – of a fever, a pain or the pulse, to stop for a time.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop something for a time or at intervals; to suspend or interrupt: The villagers never intermitted their evening prayers.^[7][9][2]
2. To cause a thing such as a spark to come and go at intervals.^[7]
3. To cease for a time or at intervals: The rain intermitted towards dusk.^[7][9][2]
4. (medicine) Of a fever, a pain or the pulse, to stop for a time.^[2][10]
5. (obsolete, 1557–1698) To interrupt a person or an action.^[2][10]
6. (obsolete, 1570–1692) To omit or leave out.^[2][10]

Word family

• intermitter
• intermittingly
• unintermitted
• unintermitting
• intermittence
• intermittency
• intermittent

Related words

• intermission
• mission
• missile
• intromit

Usage notes

The OED has a separate obsolete verb intermit, a refashioning of entermete after the Latin verb, recorded from about 1340 to 1676: to concern or occupy oneself with something, and to interpose or admit.^[2] In Rutland dialect, Wright records intermit for to admit or allow to enter, said of patients at an infirmary.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)