quietus

See also: Quietus

English

Etymology

Short for Medieval Latin quiētus est (literally “he is quit”). First attested in the 1530s. Earlier attested as Late Middle English quietus est. Doublet of quiet and coy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwaɪˈiːtəs/

Noun

quietus (usually uncountable, plural quietuses)

1. A stillness or pause; something that quiets or represses; removal from activity.
   • 1885–1886, Henry James, chapter XXX, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 284:

     Olive's specific terrors and dangers had by this time very much blown over; Basil Ransom had given no sign of life for ages, and Henry Burrage had certainly got his quietus before they went to Europe.

2. (figuratively) Death.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 265:

     When he himſelfe might his Quietus make / With a bare Bodkin?

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 336:

     After a good deal of firing, and lying in wait - for every time he heard a shot down he'd go, and on coming to the surface, would only expose about two or three inches of his nose to fire at - we managed to give him his quietus.

3. Final settlement (e.g., of a debt).

Related terms

• quiescence
• quiet
• quietude

Anagrams

• tiuques

Latin

Alternative forms

• quētus (nonstandard)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kʷjētos, perfect passive participle of quiēscō (“repose, lie still”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kʷiˈeː.tus/, [kʷiˈeːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwiˈe.tus/, [kwiˈɛːt̪us]

Participle

quiētus (feminine quiēta, neuter quiētum, comparative quiētior, superlative quiētissimus); first/second-declension participle

1. at rest/nap, quiet, keeping quiet, quietude, quietness
2. peaceful, neutral
3. tranquil, calm

   Synonyms: misericors, tranquillus, mitis, placidus, clemens

   Antonyms: violēns, obstreperus, clāmātōrius, trux, ferōx, atrōx, silvāticus, ācer

4. modest, moderate, unambitious
5. inactive, retired from public life
6. phlegmatic, stolid

   Synonym: lentus

7. excused, absolved of

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	quiētus	quiēta	quiētum		quiētī	quiētae	quiēta
genitive	quiētī	quiētae	quiētī		quiētōrum	quiētārum	quiētōrum
dative	quiētō	quiētae	quiētō		quiētīs
accusative	quiētum	quiētam	quiētum		quiētōs	quiētās	quiēta
ablative	quiētō	quiētā	quiētō		quiētīs
vocative	quiēte	quiēta	quiētum		quiētī	quiētae	quiēta

Derived terms

• quiētō

Related terms

• quiēscō
• quiētālis
• quiētī

 

Descendants

• → Old French: quite
  • Middle French: quitte
    • French: quitte
  • → Middle English: quit, quite
    • English: quit, quite
  • → Old Galician-Portuguese: quite, quieto, quito, quita
    • Portuguese: quite

(Inherited Romance forms via quētus.)

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: ãntset
  • Romanian: chet, închet
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: cheto
  • Sicilian: cuetu
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: cuiet
  • Lombard: quet
  • Venetan: chieto, chiet, cet
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: quet
  • Franco-Provençal: quièt
  • French: coi
  • → English: coy
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: quedu
  • Galician: quedo
  • Portuguese: quedo
  • Spanish: quedo
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: chetu
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *quiētiāre (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowings:
  • → Asturian: quietu
  • → Catalan: quiet
  • → English: quiet, quietus
  • → French: quiet
  • → Galician: quieto
  • → Portuguese: quieto
  • → Spanish: quieto

References

• “quietus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quietus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• quietus in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2024), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• quietus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• quietus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to lay oneself down to slee: somno or quieti se tradere
    
  • in a dream: per quietem, in quiete
    
  • to remain inactive in camp: se (quietum) tenere castris
    
• “quietus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers