Quit

How to spell quit

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce quit

What does quit mean?

1. verbTo stop doing something, or to leave a job, place, or activity for good.

Quit in a sentence

• She decided to quit her job after fifteen years at the firm.

• The doctor advised him to quit smoking before the surgery.

Where does quit come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Quit travelled into English in the 1200s from Old French quiter (also spelled quitter), meaning 'to set free', 'to release', or 'to let go of a claim'. That French verb grew out of the Medieval Latin quietare, 'to make quiet or to discharge a debt', which in turn rested on the classical Latin adjective quietus, literally 'at rest, free, clear'. The earliest English uses were legal and financial: to quit someone was to release them from a debt or obligation, a sense still preserved in the phrase 'quit a debt' and in the word 'quittance', a formal receipt. From 'releasing an obligation' the meaning broadened to 'leaving' a place or 'stopping' an activity, which is how we use it most today. The very same quietus root sits behind the calmer words 'quiet' and 'acquit', so the connecting idea is always one of letting go and coming to rest. Because the word is short and phonetic, its only real spelling snag is the 'qu' opening, where the q is never written without its trailing u.

How the word is built

• quit (from Latin quietus: free, released, at rest); a single unanalysable root borrowed whole into English