Ajourner

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To suspend a meeting or event until a later time
2. to defer further proceedings or discussions to a future date
3. to temporarily postpone a judicial case or legal matter for later resolution

Etymology: "Ajourner" is a French verb, and its English relatives are a surprise: the English "adjourn" is the same word, borrowed from Old French "ajorner" and ultimately from Latin roots meaning "to a day." Medieval French legal usage gave "ajorner" the sense of setting a day for a further hearing, so a court that postponed a case was literally assigning it another day. The Latin base is "dies," meaning day, which also gives English words like "diurnal" and "journal." Early English uses of the word kept this sense of an appointed future day, and the meaning broadened over time to general postponement of any meeting or business, not just legal matters. "Ajourner" as a verb keeps the original French sense: to put off a legal case to a later date. Noun use, as in a judicial adjournment, follows the same pattern.

Synonyms: postponer, rescheduler, deferrer

Antonyms: advancer, expediter