demur
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English demuren, from Anglo-Norman demorer (French demeurer), from Vulgar Latin demorō, Latin demoror (“to tarry”), from de- + moror (“to delay”).[1] See alternative etymology in the Anglo-Norman ancestor.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dĭmûrʹ, IPA(key): /dɪˈmɜː(ɹ)/
- (General American) enPR: dĭmûrʹ, IPA(key): /dɪˈmɜɹ/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: de‧mur
Verb
[edit]demur (third-person singular simple present demurs, present participle demurring, simple past and past participle demurred)
- (intransitive, obsolete) To linger; to stay; to tarry
- (intransitive) To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair.
- 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixth:
- Vpon this rubbe the English Embassadors thought fit to demurre
- 1920, [Elizabeth von Arnim], In the Mountains, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 180:
- Work with my hands out of doors was the only thing I felt I could bear to-day. It wasn't the first time, I reflected, that peace has been found among cabbages. / Antoine demurred, of course, but did at last consent to let me pick red currants.
- (intransitive) To scruple or object; to take exception; to oppose; to balk
- I demur to that statement.
- The personnel demurred at the management's new scheme.
- (intransitive, law) To interpose a demurrer.
- (transitive, obsolete) To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- The latter I demur, for in their looks / Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.
- (transitive, obsolete) To cause delay to; to put off
- 1635, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Canto XI. Cant[icles] III. II.”, in Emblemes, London: […] G[eorge] M[iller] and sold at at Iohn Marriots shope […], →OCLC, book IV, stanza 4, page 226:
- I ask'd the Lavvyer; He demands a Fee, / And then demurres me vvith a vaine delay: […]
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]intransitive: To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings
|
intransitive: To balk; to oppose.
|
transitive, obsolete: To cause delay to; to put off
Noun
[edit]demur (plural demurs)
- An act of hesitation as to proceeding; a scruple; also, a suspension of action or decision; a pause, a stop.
- 1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 37:
- If publique Aſſemblies of Divines cannot agree upon a right vvay, private Conventicles of illeterate men, vvill ſoon finde a vvrong. Bivious demurres breed devious reſolutions. Paſſengers to heaven are in haſte, and vvill vvalk one vvay or other.
- 1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 4, lines 65–66:
- All my demurrs but double his attacks; / At laſt he vvhiſpers, "Do; and vve go ſnacks."
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 132:
- Most geologists today would accept such evidence without demur, but it was still ‘fringe’ science when du Toit was publishing.
Translations
[edit]hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple
References
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Latin
[edit]Verb
[edit]dēmur
Middle English
[edit]Adjective
[edit]demur
- Alternative form of demure (“demure”)
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)mer- (remember)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Law
- English transitive verbs
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives