Quit first showed up in the
early thirteenth century,
where it meant repay, like a debt. Quit has actually had a lot of meanings over
the years. In the mid-thirteenth century, it meant to reward, while in the late
fourteenth century it meant to take revenge or retort. Then in the fourteenth
century, before we had acquit, quit meant to plead not guilty. Later on, in the fifteenth century, quit
meant leave or depart (if you’ve ever read any Shakespeare, you’ve heard it
used that way) and then mid-century, it also meant relinquish. It wasn’t until
the middle of the seventeenth century that people started using it as “stop
doing something”. There’s no real reason why quit changed definitions so many
times, but most of the meanings had something to do with being free of
something. That’s because quit comes from the Old French quiter, establish innocence or simply
release. Quiter comes from another Old French word, quitte, which means free or clear. It comes from the Medieval Latin quitus and classical Latin quietus, which means quit, calm, or sleeping. And if you think that
word looks and sounds an awful lot like quiet, there’s a reason.
Sources
University of Texas at Austin
Linguistic Research Center
