Word of the Day

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

terminus

\TUR-muh-nuhs\ , noun;

The finishing point; the end.

A boundary; a border; a limit.

A post or stone marking a boundary.

Either end of a railroad or other transportation line; also, the station house, town, or city at that place.

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Quotes:

Rather their train would come up from Southampton to Paddington railway station, the terminus for Queen Victoria's special train whenever she traveled to London from Windsor.

-- Jonathan Schneer, London 1900

Roth had reached a kind of terminus -- the end of the beginning, as it were.

-- Jason Cowley, "The Nihilist", The Atlantic, May 2001

Origin:

Terminus is from the Latin word meaning "limit or boundary." It is related to term, "a limited period of time," and terminate, "to bring to an end."