Word of the Day

: August 25, 2023

quiescent

adjective kwy-ESS-unt

What It Means

Quiescent is a formal word that describes things that are quiet, inactive, or in a state of peaceful rest. In medical contexts it describes a condition that is not currently developing or causing symptoms, as in "a quiescent disease/virus."

// Volcanoes often exist for centuries in a quiescent state before their sudden, violent eruptions.

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quiescent in Context

"The mechanism is just one way that scientists are realizing that asteroids can be active, dynamic places rather than quiescent lumps of rock." — Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 29 Mar. 2023

Did You Know?

Hush your puppies and calm your kitties, it’s time to make much (tranquil) ado about quiescent. As you might expect from both its meaning and the sequence of its first four letters, quiescent shares roots with the far more common, and less formal, word quiet. In fact, short is the list of English words beginning "q-u-i-e" that have no kinship with quiet and its various relations suggestive of restfulness and calm. (Our unabridged dictionary lists only two: quiebracha and quiebrahacha, both rare variants of quebracho.) Today’s adjective quiescent traces back to the Latin verb quiēscere, meaning "to become quiet" or "to rest," and was possibly first used by Francis Bacon, who wrote in 1605 that "… as Aristotle endeavoureth to prove, that in all motion there is some point quiescent…" Way to bring it home, Bacon.