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.
US President Truman and the USSR’s comrade Stalin attended for the duration while Prime Minister Churchill 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 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 the prime minister’s country house, Chequers, 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 stroke in 1953, until 1955.
No comments:
Post a Comment