stoppage

Etymology

It is formed from English stop + -age,^[2][3][4][5] first as Middle English stoppage, also stopage, from the verb stoppen.^[6][7] Stop goes back to the Old English verb found in forstoppian (“to stop up, stifle”);^[3] many sources take the Germanic verb as a borrowing of Vulgar Latin *stuppō (“to stuff with tow”), from stuppa (“tow”), but Etymonline notes that this is doubted.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An obstacle or hindrance: about 1450, in the Coventry Mysteries,^[2] where the MED quotes holy wedlock as a stopage to blind the devil to Christ's birth.^[6] The sense of a deduction from payment is recorded in the Paston letters in 1465.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The earliest senses were concrete and financial: a hindrance (now obsolete) and a sum stopped, or deducted, from the pay of a soldier, worker or servant.^[2][6][3] From the 16th century the word was used of the blocking of a road, stream or passage (1540) and of an organ of the body (1575);^[2] from 1621 it was also used of the detention of goods or travellers on the way.^[2] The general sense, the act of stopping something, is recorded from 1657,^[2][3] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "the act of stopping; the state of being stopped".^[8] A stop in a journey or in an activity followed in 1775, the stopping of payment in commerce in 1817, and a halt in work because of a dispute, a strike or lock-out, in 1902.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – an obstacle, hindrance (now obsolete).^[2][6]
• 1465 – a deduction from payment.^[2][6]
• 1540 – the obstruction of a road, passage or stream.^[2]
• 1575 – an obstruction of a bodily organ.^[2]
• 1621 – the detention of travellers or goods in transit.^[2]
• 1657 – the action of stopping something.^[2][3]
• 1775 – a halt in movement or activity.^[2]
• 1902 – a halt in work because of a dispute between employer and employees.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped; a halt: a stoppage in production.^[9][10][7]
2. A halt in work organized by employees, as in a strike: a one-day work stoppage.^[10][2]
3. Something that blocks a passage; a blockage or obstruction, including one in an organ of the body.^[10][7][2]
4. A sum deducted from a person's pay.^[10][7][2]
5. The detention of goods or a carrier in transit.^[7][2]

Related words

• stop
• stopper

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 s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f 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)
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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins