ABSTRACT
The Oxford English Dictionary establishes that the word ‘quiet’ is derived from the Latin root quies which means rest and repose. The Dictionary says that quiet can be defined as a condition which is marked by ‘the absence of all strife, bustle, stir or com-motion; also, free from noise or uproar, silent, still’ (OED). As such, the word implies both physical stillness (the rest of repose) and the making or the hearing of no noise (the rest of silence). Quiet is both an environmental condition and a state of mind. In both cases quiet implies the situation of a kind of peace. It is a relative state.
