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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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

References

Anagrams

• tiuques

Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kʷiˈeː.tus/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwiˈe.tus/,

Participle

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

1. at rest/nap, quiet, keeping quiet.
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.

Derived terms

• quiētō

Related terms

Descendants

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, 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