Compound of 'cease' (Latin 'cessare,' to stop) + 'fire' — originally a battlefield command, now a noun for a truce.
A temporary suspension of fighting, typically one during which peace talks take place; an order to stop firing.
A compound of cease (from Old French cesser, from Latin cessare, to stop, to delay, frequentative of cedere, to go, to yield) + fire (from Old English fyr, from Proto-Germanic *fuir, from PIE *peh2wr, fire). The PIE root *peh2wr for fire is notable: it produced English fire, Greek pyr (fire — as in pyre, pyrotechnics, and pyromaniac), and Armenian hur (fire). The PIE root for cease — *ked- or *sed- underlying cedere — produced yield, secede, proceed
French 'cessez-le-feu' (cease-the-fire) and Spanish 'alto el fuego' (halt the fire) are calques of the English military command. German takes a different metaphor entirely: 'Waffenruhe' means 'weapons-rest,' as if the guns are taking a nap. The English compound 'ceasefire' only became a noun in the mid-1800s — before that, it was
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