quit: [13] Quit comes from the same ultimate source as quiet – Latin quiētus. This originally meant simply ‘quiet, calm’, but in medieval Latin it developed a wider range of senses, including ‘unharmed’ and ‘free’. From it was derived the verb quiētāre ‘set free, discharge’, which reached English via Old French quiter. The derived forms acquit and requite [16] come from the same source, and quite is essentially the same word as quit. => quiet
quit (v.)
c. 1200, "to repay, discharge" (a debt, etc.), from Old French quiter "clear, establish one's innocence;" also transitive, "release, let go, relinquish, abandon" (12c.), from quite (see quit (adj.)).
Meaning "to reward, give reward" is mid-13c., that of "take revenge; to answer, retort" and "to acquit oneself" are late 14c. From c. 1300 as "to acquit (of a charge), declare not guilty." Sense of "leave, depart" is attested from c. 1400; that of "stop" (doing something) is from 1640s. Meaning "to give up, relinquish" is from mid-15c. Related: Quitted; quitting. Quitting time is from 1835.
quit (adj.)
c. 1200, "free, clear" (of debt, etc.), from Old French quite, quitte "free, clear, entire, at liberty; discharged; unmarried," from Medieval Latin quitus, quittus, from Latin quietus "free" (in Medieval Latin "free from war, debts, etc."), also "calm, resting" (see quiet (adj.)).
双语例句
1. Well, parenthetically, I was trying to quit smoking at the time.
嗯，插一句，我那时正在努力戒烟。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He quit his job as an office boy in Athens.
他辞去了在雅典当办公室勤杂工的工作。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He did not quit as France's prime minister of his own accord.
他辞去法国总理职务并非出于自愿。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She quit school as soon as she had taken her GCSEs.
她一拿到普通中等教育证书后就没再上学了。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Police were called when he refused to quit the building.