Word of the Day

quittance \KWIT-ns\,
noun:
1. recompense or requital.
2. discharge from a debt or obligation.
3. a document certifying discharge from debt or obligation, as a receipt.

Very good; here is the money. Now make me out a quittance, signed.
-- Edward Gilliat, "John Standish, Or, The Harrowing of London"

And now she said to Leta, "Give me your quittance price." "Mother," said Leta, "it is all I have."
-- Doris Lessing, "Mara and Dann"

Quittance is derived from the Old French quit meaning "free, clear." The root did not take on its negative connotation, "to give up," until the 1600s.

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