requiem [LME] This is from Latin requies ‘rest’, the first word of the Mass for the Dead, said or sung for the repose of their souls: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine ‘Grant them, O Lord, eternal rest’. The Latin word goes back to quietus ‘quiet’, which is the source of *quit, requite [LME], and tranquil [E17th] and, via coi the French for *quiet, coy [ME].