'Silence' is Latin for 'letting sound fall away' — possibly from 'to let drop.' Uncertain deeper origin.
Complete absence of sound; the fact or state of abstaining from speech.
From Old French 'silence,' from Latin 'silentium' (a being silent, stillness, quiet), from 'silēre' (to be silent, to be still, to make no noise), of uncertain further etymology — possibly from PIE *seyl- (to let go, to release, to let drop), suggesting silence as 'letting sound fall away.' Latin 'silēre' had no certain cognates outside Italic, making it one of the etymologically isolated foundational words of European culture. Key roots: silēre (Latin