War over Peace

PEACE: freedom from civil or inner disturbance

Latin’s pax, meaning “tranquility or absence of war” gave peace to the English language. In the 11th century, pais (Old French) meant “peace, reconciliation, silence, permission.” In Anglo-French, pes identified both “an agreement” and “the absence of war.” In hypothetical prehistoric Proto-Indo-European, the base *pag- meant “to fasten,” suggesting connection to a pact as something to which previously warring parties attached some token signifying an agreement to cease hostilities—perhaps something like the seals attached to royal treaties ending a war.

Around the turn of the 11th century, a spiritual sense was added to...