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Demise

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:23 pm
by Dr. Goodword

• demise •

Pronunciation: di-maiz Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, Verb

Meaning: 1. (Noun) End, finish, failure, death. 2. (Noun) The transfer property by will. 3. (Verb) To transfer title to property by will.

Notes: English offers several euphemisms for death and dying, among them pass away, decease, expire, and so on. Today's word is one of them as, 'after his demise'. It is a lexical orphan which shares a source with dismiss.

In Play: Demise is most often used as a euphemism for death: "Right after Calvin Coolidge's demise in 1933, Dorothy Parker famously asked, 'How could they tell?' at the Algonquin Table." However, it may be used to signal the end of anything: "Everyone in the company was relieved to hear of the demise of the idea that the company should produce a helicopter ejector seat."

Word History: This word came to Middle English as a legal term from Anglo-Norman French, from dimis, the past participle of Old French demettre "to dismiss", source also of English dismiss. It evolved from Latin dimittere "to scatter, distribute", based on di-, a variant of de- "(out) from" + mittere "to release, let go". Latin inherited mittere from PIE mei-to-/moi-to- "to (ex)change, move, go". This PIE word is also the source of Sanskrit mitrah "friend", Old Persian mithra "contract", English miss, and the prefixes mis- and French mes-.

Re: Demise

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:46 pm
by Philip Hudson
I abhor euphemisms for death. If one is dead, she/he is dead. Other words do violence to the totally adequate word "death." The discussion about life after death is a religious one. I am among the believers.

I am reminded of a little rhyme:
"I had a dog and his name was Rover,
and when he died, he died all over."

I am not prepared to debate the possibility of life after death for animals. C. S. Lewis had some thoughts on this subject. It is not a thing of concern for me.

There is another ditty about dogs and death:
"If dogs have a heaven there's one thing I know,
old Shep has a wonderful home."

And another:
"Now Shep is gone where all good doggies go--"

I have been often reminded by my dear wife that I know too much trivia and I let it dribble out into conversations too often. :D