finis

See also: finís, finiš, and finiş

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fīnis (“end; limit”).

Noun

finis

1. The end (of a book or other work).
   • 1836, — Frederick Marryat, Mr Midshipman Easy

     He had gone through the work from the title-page to the finis at least forty times, and had just commenced it over again.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:
     , Episode 16

     Highly providential was the appearance on the scene of Corny Kelleher when Stephen was blissfully unconscious but for that man in the gap turning up at the eleventh hour the finis might have been that he might have been a candidate for the accident ward […]

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Esperanto

Verb

finis

1. past of fini

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.ni/
• Homophones: fini, finie, finies, finit, finît

Adjective

finis

1. masculine plural of fini

Verb

finis

1. first-person singular present indicative of finir
2. second-person singular present indicative of finir
3. first-person singular past historic of finir
4. second-person singular past historic of finir
5. second-person singular imperative of finir

Participle

finis

1. masculine plural of the past participle of finir

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Ido

Verb

finis

1. past of finar

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Latin

Etymology

Disputed. Possibly for *fignis, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”), whence figō, or for *fidnis, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”), whence findō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.nis/, [ˈfiː.nɪs]

Noun

fīnis m, f (genitive fīnis); third declension

1. end
   • Vergil. Aeneid, I

     devs dabit finem quoqve his

     God will give an end to these (things) also.

2. limit, border, boundary
3. (plural) boundaries; by extension, territory, region, lands
4. limit in duration, term (duration of a set length)
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita libri 26.1

     huic generi militum senatus eundem, quem Cannensibus, finem statuerat militiae.

     For this class of soldier the senate had established a limit in duration to their military service, which was the same as the men at Cannae.

5. purpose
6. death

Inflection

Third declension, alternative ablative singular in -ī and accusative plural in -īs.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	fīnis	fīnēs
genitive	fīnis	fīnium
dative	fīnī	fīnibus
accusative	fīnem	fīnēs fīnīs
ablative	fīne fīnī	fīnibus
vocative	fīnis	fīnēs

Derived terms

• affīnis
• fīniō
• fīnitimus

Descendants

• Asturian: fin
• Catalan: fi
• Dalmatian: fain
• Dutch: finish (borrowing from English)
• English: finish (from fīniō, through Old French)
• French: fin
• Friulian: fin

• Galician: fin
• Istriot: feîn
• Italian: fine
• Ladin: fin
• Occitan: fin
• Portuguese: fim

• Romansch: fin, fegn
• Sardinian: fine, fini
• Sicilian: fini
• Spanish: fin
• Venetian: fin
• Walloon: fén

Verb

fīnīs

1. second-person singular present active of fīniō

References

• finis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• finis in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• du Cange, Charles (1883), “finis”, in G. A. Louis Henschel, Pierre Carpentier, Léopold Favre, editors, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (in Latin), Niort: L. Favre
• “finis” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to enlarge the boundaries of a kingdom: fines (imperii) propagare, extendere, (longius) proferre
    
  • to evacuate territory: (ex) finibus excedere
    
  • to put an end to one's life: vitae finem facere
    
  • such was the end of... (used of a violent death): talem vitae exitum (not finem) habuit (Nep. Eum. 13)
    
  • to finish, complete, fulfil, accomplish a thing: finem facere alicuius rei
    
  • to finish, complete, fulfil, accomplish a thing: finem imponere, afferre, constituere alicui rei
    
  • to finish, complete, fulfil, accomplish a thing: ad finem aliquid adducere
    
  • to come to an end: finem habere
    
  • to cease speaking: finem dicendi facere
    
  • to impose fixed limitations: fines certos terminosque constituere
    
  • to put an end to war: belli finem facere, bellum finire
    

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Pijin

Etymology

English finish

Particle

finis

1. Tense marker for the past perfect tense