Requiem

How to spell requiem

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce requiem

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does requiem mean?

1. nounA musical composition or church service honouring and praying for the dead.

Requiem in a sentence

• The choir spent months rehearsing a requiem for the memorial concert.

• The orchestra recorded a famous requiem by an Austrian composer.

Where does requiem come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes straight from Latin requiem, which is the accusative form of requies, meaning 'rest' or 'repose'. That noun was built from the prefix re-, used here for emphasis, attached to quies, meaning 'rest, quiet, or stillness', the same root that gives us 'quiet', 'quiescent', and 'tranquil'. The word entered English in the medieval period through the Latin of the Catholic Church, because the Mass for the Dead opens with the sung line 'Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine', meaning 'Grant them eternal rest, O Lord'. The very first word of that chant became the name for the whole service, and later for any musical setting of it, such as those by Mozart and Verdi. The unusual -em ending, which looks foreign to English eyes, is simply the original Latin case ending preserved intact, and that frozen grammatical form is exactly what makes the spelling feel slippery.

How the word is built

• re- (intensive)
• quies (rest, quiet)
• -em (Latin accusative ending)