Word of the Day Archive
Saturday January 24, 2004
abeyance \uh-BAY-uhn(t)s\
, noun:
Suspension; temporary cessation.
He was nineteen years old, and officially a medical student, though inevitably his studies were in abeyance for the duration of the war.
-- Ruth Brandon, Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945
Her plans fell into abeyance when she parted from Franz Josef and traveled for five years.
-- Rebecca West, "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon", The Atlantic, January 1941
Abeyance derives from Medieval French abeance, "expectation," from abeer, from a-, "to" (from Latin ad-) + baer, beer, "to gape (at)," from Late Latin batare, "to gape."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for abeyance
