demise
/dɪˈmaɪz/noun, verb
the end of life or transfer of property
From Latin, via Old French des- (away) + Latin, via Old French metre (to put).
Lineage
des-
metre
LatinRomanceGermanicnot directly attestedSelect a stage for details, or drag it
The story
For centuries, demise was not primarily about dying: it was paperwork. In medieval legal language, an estate could be “put away” from one owner and granted to another, through Old French desmetre—des-, “away,” plus metre, “put.” That metre traces to Latin mittere, “send,” the same family behind mission, transmit, and submit. By the 1540s, the word could describe a transfer of sovereignty; by 1754, it had softened into a polished way to say that someone had died. A demise began as a change of hands—and death became its most final change of ownership.