Hesitation
nounA pause or delay caused by uncertainty, reluctance, or doubt before acting.
How to spell hesitation
10 letters · 4 syllables
How to pronounce hesitation
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does hesitation mean?
- nounA pause or delay caused by uncertainty, reluctance, or doubt before acting.
Hesitation in a sentence
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After a moment of hesitation, she signed the contract.
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He answered the interview question without the slightest hesitation.
Where does hesitation come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word descends from the Latin haesitatio, meaning a sticking fast or a wavering, which was built on the verb haesitare, 'to stick fast' or 'to be undecided'. That verb is the frequentative of haerere, meaning 'to cling' or 'to stick', so the original mental image is wonderfully physical: someone whose feet, or whose thoughts, will not come unstuck. The same haerere root also gives English 'adhere', 'cohere', and 'inherent', all of which keep the idea of clinging or sticking together. English took hesitation in through the early 1600s, alongside the verb 'hesitate', and the abstract sense of pausing through doubt has stayed close to that root meaning ever since. The single 's' and single 't' are the spelling trap, because the soft middle syllable tempts writers to double a letter that the Latin never had.
How the word is built
- hesit- (from Latin haesitare: to stick, to be stuck)
- -ation (noun of action)
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