appease

uh-PEEZ · verb

Origin

Appease comes from Middle English apesen, borrowed from Old French apeser, meaning "to pacify, bring to peace."

This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.

One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →

The word entered English already carrying its core sense of soothing or pacifying, inherited directly from the Old French verb.

The Old French root apeser points plainly toward "peace" as the idea underneath it.

From Old French

Nearby, A–Z