Finis

Finis (pronounced fin-is, fee-nee or fahy-nis)

End; finish; death; conclusion.

1425–1475: A late Middle English borrowing, either from the French or directly from the Latin fīnis (end; limit, literally “the end" & doublet of fine).  The origin is disputed: It’s possibly from fignis from the primitive Indo-European dheygw- (to stick, set up), from which Latin gained figere & figō (I fasten; to fix) or from fidnis, from bheyd- (to split), which yielded the Latin findō (I divide).  A publishing tradition began in the fifteenth century to place finis at the end of a book, a practice which remained common until the late 1800s.  Existing in Middle English as finishen, finisshen & finischen, the modern English verb finish meant originally (late-fourteenth century) "to bring to an end" and by the mid-fifteenth century, "to come to an end".  The English form came from the thirteenth century Old French finiss- (present participle stem of fenir (stop, finish, come to an end; die)), from the Latin finire (to limit, set bounds; put an end to; come to an end), from finis (that which divides, a boundary, border), often used figuratively to suggest "a limit, an end, close, conclusion; an extremity, highest point; greatest degree.  The meaning "to kill, terminate the existence of" is from 1755.  Modern English offers a myriad of synonyms including over, finish, farewell, windup, completion, expiry, culmination, integration, fulfillment, realization, conclusion, achievement, expiration, finalization, closure, resolution, retirement, result, and outcome.  Finis is a noun

Prime Minister Attlee (left), President Truman (centre) and comrade Stalin (right), Potsdam Conference, 1945. Held in Brandenburg's Cecilienhof Palace in what would soon become the German Democratic Republic (GDR, the old East Germany), the Potsdam Conference (17 July-2 August 1945), was the last of the three (following Tehran, 28 November-1 December 1943 & Yalta, 4-11 February 1945) World War II (1939-1945) meetings of the heads of government of the UK, US & USSR.

Before the Cold War: The group photographs from the Tehran Conference (left), Yalta Conference (centre left) and Potsdam Conference (centre right & right) are among the most re-produced images from World War II.  The only constant presence among the leaders was comrade Stalin. 

Harry Truman (1884–1972; US president 1945-1953) and the USSR’s comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) attended for the duration while Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) represented the UK until 24 July, leaving the following day for London to be present for the declaration of results of the general election.  He left without saying farewell to Truman and Stalin because he expected to be re-elected and return within days.  Instead, the Conservatives were defeated in a landslide and, on 28 July, the new prime minister, the Labour Party’s Clement Attlee (1883–1967; UK prime-minister 1945-1951) flew to Potsdam for the conference’s resumption.  The defeat provoked a variety of reactions within the Soviet delegation.  Comrade Stalin, who had no particular objection to elections, believing "it mattered not who voted but rather who counted the votes", was surprised, having assumed the Conservative Party would have “fixed” the result.  Churchill’s doctor noted in his diary the comment of one female Soviet soldier who, on hearing the news, said she expected Mr Attlee would “… now have Mr Churchill shot”.  On 29 July, leaving Chequers (the prime minister’s Buckinghamshire country house) for what he assumed would be the last time, Churchill signed finis in the visitors’ book.  He was too pessimistic, returning to office in 1951 and staying, despite a severe stroke in 1953, until 1955, resisting the efforts of many of his colleagues to "prise him out".