Other forms: moratoriums
A moratorium is an agreed halt to an activity for a time. A moratorium on drilling, call for a moratorium, lift the moratorium.
It is temporary by definition and usually voluntary or negotiated, which is what separates it from a ban. The commercial whaling moratorium agreed in 1982 is the best-known example still in force.
1nounmoratoriumAn agreed halt to an activity for a time.
“The government announced a moratorium on new coal mines for five years.”
moratorium is a halt.
Latin moratorium means delaying, from morari, to delay, from mora, a delay.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)mer-
Latin
morātōrium
English, today
moratorium
Built from
New Latin from Latin morātōrium, noun use of the neuter of morātōrius (“moratory, delaying”), from Latin moror (“to delay”), from mora (“delay”), from Proto-Indo-European mere (“to delay, hinder”). See also moratory.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA