From Middle English remissioun (“release from duty; freeing of captives; mercy, pardon, respite; forgiveness; release from or reduction of penances; reduction in intensity (of a quality, symptom, etc.); transfer of property, quitclaim; legal opinion or submission; reference, cross-reference”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman remission, remissione, remissioun, remissiun and Middle French, Old French remission (“forgiveness of sin; pardoning of an offence; postponement; cessation, suspension; diminishing or weakening of something; reduction of debt; reduction in intensity of a disease or symptom”) (modern French rémission), and their etymon Late Latin remissiō (“forgiveness; pardon of sins”), Latin remissiō (“release; sending back; easing off, relaxing, softening; reduction of debt; reduction in intensity of a disease or symptom”), from remittō (“to remit, send back; to diminish; to relax; to do without, forego”) + -siō. Remittō is derived from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + mittō (“to cause to go; to send; to discharge, emit, let go, release; to throw; to extend, reach out; to announce, tell; to produce, yield; to attend, escort, guide; to dismiss, disregard; to end”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to change, exchange; to change places, go past”) or *(s)meyt- (“to throw”)). The English word is cognate with Catalan remissió, Italian remissioni, remissione (“remission; withdrawal of legal action; compliance, submission”), Old Occitan remessió, Portuguese remisson, remissão (“pardon; remission”), Spanish remisión (“remission”).

acceptilation • remitment • anesis • remittence • abatement • absolution • forgiveness • remit • remittal • remittance • subsidence