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Etymology and origin of the English word pease

Pronunciation

pease1 pea

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
Bald's Leechbook, early Old English
Borrowed from
Latin pisa via Middle English, Old English
Ultimate origin
Latin pisum

Etymology

The word for the pea is inherited from Middle English pese,[2][3] inherited from Old English pise, plural pisan, also piose,[4][5][6][7] borrowed from Late Latin pisa, a feminine singular taken from the plural of Latin pisum (“pea”),[8][9][5] from Ancient Greek πίσον (píson) or πίσος (písos).[9][5][10] The OED calls the Greek word apparently a loanword and allows that the Latin one may be a parallel borrowing from another language;[9] Klein thinks it of Thraco-Phrygian origin.[10] The English word was reinforced by Old French peis, the Anglo-Norman form of pois,[9] and Klein takes the vowel of pese from it.[10] Etymonline explains the Old English piose as Mercian.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pea plant and its seed: early Old English, in Bald's Leechbook.[9] Bosworth–Toller quotes Old English recipes such as peas boiled in vinegar.[4]

Semantic evolution

In late Middle English the plural was often the same as the singular, and the final sound came to be taken as a plural ending; a new singular pea was inferred in the 17th century,[9][7] and after the mid 17th century peas could no longer be told from the plural of pea.[9] Pease then lived on as a collective noun: Johnson (1755) explained that a single seed was a pea and its plural peas, but that spoken of collectively, as food or a species, it was pease, anciently peason, and quoted Tusser: "Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moon".[11] From before 1275 to the early 17th century it also stood for something of very little worth, as in not worth a pease,[9][12] a use the OED compares with Old French.[9] From before 1398 the plural meant the eggs of certain fish and amphibians, later only in south-western English dialect.[9] The word is now archaic or dialectal except in compounds such as pease porridge (1530s), pease pudding and peasemeal;[12][3][13][7] Weekley noted that pease-soup had become pea-soup.[14]

Timeline

  • early Old English – the pea plant, and its seed.[9]
  • before 1275 – something of very small value, as in not worth a pease (obsolete after 1622).[9][12]
  • before 1398 – in the plural, the eggs of certain fish and amphibians.[9]
  • 1530s – pease porridge, porridge of pease meal.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic or dialect) The pea plant or its seeds, especially peas taken together as food: a sack of dried pease.[13][3][12][9]
  2. (obsolete, 1275–1622) Something of very little value: not worth a pease.[9][12]
  3. (dialect) In the plural, the eggs of certain fish and amphibians.[9][12]

Word family

  • peascod
  • pease pudding
  • peasemeal
  • pease porridge

pease2 to make peace

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1300 Laȝamon's Brut, Otho manuscript
Borrowed from
Old French paiser via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old French paisier

Etymology

The word for making peace is inherited from Middle English pesen, also peisen and paisen,[2] borrowed from Old French paiser, the Anglo-Norman form of paisier (“to make peace, to reconcile”),[9][2] an aphetic form of apaisier, the source of appease.[9] The Middle English Dictionary also derives it from the noun pes (“peace”),[2] and the OED thinks that in later use it was probably also a shortening of the English verb appease.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make peace between people, to reconcile them: about 1300, in the Otho manuscript of Laȝamon's Brut.[9][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the verb spread from reconciling people to settling a war or dispute and calming anger or grief (about 1330), to quietening or silencing (about 1350), to pacifying a country (before 1387), and to placating a person and atoning for a wrong (before 1400).[9][2] All these senses died out between the mid 16th and mid 17th centuries, the last in 1652.[9] In 19th-century dialect of Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Devon a verb pease meant to ooze out or trickle.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – to reconcile people; to make peace.[9][2]
  • c. 1330 – to bring a war to an end, to settle a dispute; to calm anger or grief.[9][2]
  • c. 1350 – to quieten or silence.[9]
  • before 1387 – to pacify a country.[9]
  • before 1400 – to placate a person; to atone for something.[9][2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (obsolete, 1300–1652) To reconcile people, or to make peace.[9][2]
  2. (obsolete, 1330–1580) To end a war or settle a quarrel; to allay anger or grief.[9][2]
  3. (obsolete, 1400–1598) To atone for something.[9][2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ 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 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pease.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pease. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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