quietus

Short for Medieval Latin quiētus est (literally “he is quiet”). First attested in the 1530s. Earlier attested as Late Middle English quietus est.^[1] Doublet of coy, quiet, quit, and quite.

• IPA^(key): /kwaɪˈiːtəs/

quietus (usually uncountable, plural quietuses) (dated)

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.

   Synonyms: demise, fatality; see also Thesaurus: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).

• quiescence
• quiet
• quietude

• tiuques

• quētus (nonstandard)

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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kʷiˈeː.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [kʷiˈɛː.t̪us]

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

First/second-declension adjective.

• quiētō

(Inherited Romance forms via quētus.)

Borrowings:

• “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 (2003-2025), 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