demise

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The end or failure of something.

   A lack of funding eventually led to the magazine's demise.

2. 2
   noun

   A person's death.

   The whole village mourned the demise of its beloved old doctor.

From Middle English demyse, dimise, dimisse, dymyse, from Middle French démise, the feminine singular past participle of démettre (“to put down, relinquish”); from Latin dēmissa, feminine singular of perfect passive participle of dēmittō. The "death" and "end" senses derive by way of euphemism from the legal sense, as a person's death was a common way that the legal demise could be accomplished. The verb is from Middle English dimisen, from the noun.

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