Picture someone walking out of a building and not coming back. Whatever was holding them inside — the job, the lease, the routine — stops holding them the moment they step out. Quit can be thought of as that step out and the release that comes with it: you were tied to something, and now you are not. What you walk out of changes from sense to sense — a place, a job, a habit, a bad situation — but the walking out stays the same.
From the word’s history
The adjective quit came into English about 1200 from Old French quite 'free, clear, at liberty; discharged', from Latin quietus 'free; calm, resting' — the same root that gives us quiet. The early uses were about being cleared of a debt or freed from an obligation; 'leave, depart from' appears in the late 14th century and 'stop, cease' only in the 1640s. That older 'set free from' is why be quit of something and quit a job are not two different words: both are a tie being released.
quit 這個字大約在 1200 年進入英文，來自古法文 quite「自由的、清白的、免除的」，再往上是拉丁文 quietus「自由的；平靜、休息」——跟 quiet 同一個根。它最早的用法是「債務被清掉、義務被免除」，「離開某地」要到十四世紀晚期才出現，「停止做某事」更晚，到 1640 年代。這個舊的「被解開」正好說明為什麼 be quit of something（擺脫）和 quit a job（辭職）不是兩個字：兩個都是把一條綁著你的線鬆開。
Online Etymology Dictionary — etymonline.com/word/quit
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料14 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
quitadj詞源 1/kwɪt/
- 1
Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.
- With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'.
quitverb詞源 1/kwɪt/
- 1
To leave (a place).
- The British quit India in the 1940s.
- Jones had no sooner quitted the room, than the petty-fogger, in a whispering tone, asked Mrs Whitefield, “If she knew who that fine spark was?”
- 2
To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.
- To quit you […] of this fear, […]you have already lookt Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it?
- 3
To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.
- God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;
- 4
To abandon, renounce (a thing).
- 5
To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).
- After having to work overtime without being paid, I quit my job.
- 6
To stop, give up (an activity).
- John is planning to quit smoking.
- 7
computingengineeringmathematicsTo close (an application).
- 8
archaicTo pay (a debt, fine etc.).
- Edmund, enkindle all the sparkes of Nature To quit this horrid acte.
- that judge that quits each soul his hire
另外 4 個記錄的用法
- 9
archaicTo conduct or acquit (oneself); to behave (in a specified way).
- Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.
- Samſon hath quit himſelf Like Samſon,
- 10
archaicTo carry through; to go through to the end.
- Never worthy prince a day did quit With greater hazard and with more renown.
- 11
obsoleteTo repay, pay back (a good deed, injury etc.).
- Vnthankfull wretch (said he) is this the meed, With which her soueraigne mercy thou doest quight?
- Forgive me, Rogero: 'tis my fate To love thy friend and quit thy love with hate.
- 12
obsoleteTo repay (someone) for (something).
- I was but late att a Iustynge and there I Iusted with a knyghte that is broder vnto kynge Pellam and twyes smote I hym doune & thenne he promysed to quyte me on my best frynde and so he wounded my sone that can not be hole tyll I haue of that knyghtes blood
- But if that I knewe what his name hight, For clatering of me I would him ſone quight; For his falſe lying, of that I ſpake never, I could make him ſhortly repent him forever:[…]
quitnoun詞源 2/kwɪt/
- 1
Any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。