The Etymology of Requiem
Requiem is a wonderful example of synecdoche — the part standing for the whole. The Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead opens with the introit Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine — Grant them eternal rest, O Lord — and the very first word of that prayer, requiem (the accusative form of Latin requies, rest), came to name the entire liturgical service. The Latin requies is built from re- (back, again) and quies (rest, quiet), the same root that gives English quiet, acquiesce, and quietude. By the late 14th century requiem appears in English texts referring to the Mass itself. From the Renaissance onward, composers wrote elaborate musical settings of the requiem text — Ockeghem, Mozart, Verdi, Fauré, Britten — and the word came to mean a musical work as much as a religious service. Modern English uses it figuratively too: a requiem for a lost era, a requiem for a friendship — any mournful tribute to something gone. The traditional epitaph requiescat in pace (may he rest in peace, abbreviated R.I.P.) shares the same root.