demur

Origin

From Middle English demuren (“to delay; to linger; to remain (in office); to keep, retain (?)”), from Anglo-Norman demorer and Old French demorer, demourer (“to remain, stay”) (modern French demeurer), from Vulgar Latin dēmorāre, from Latin dēmorārī, the present active infinitive of Latin dēmoror (“to delay, detain; to linger, tarry”), from de- (intensifying prefix) + moror (“to delay, detain; to hinder, impede; to linger, loiter”) (from mora (“a delay; hindrance, obstacle”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to fall into thinking; to remember”), probably referring to a time for thinking) + -or (variant of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).