Etymologically
Log in

stoppage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 02:57. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈstɒpɪdʒ/[1]
  • US: /ˈstɑːpɪdʒ/[1]

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]

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