Other forms: truces
A truce is a short agreed pause in fighting. Call a truce, an uneasy truce, the truce held.
It is temporary and local by definition, which is what separates it from a ceasefire covering a whole conflict or a peace treaty ending one. The Christmas truce of 1914 is the famous case. Note that the word is the plural of an old word for a pledge — a truce is faiths given.
1nountruceA short agreed pause in fighting.
“The two sides agreed a truce so that the wounded could be collected.”
truce is a pause in fighting.
Middle English trewes is the plural of trewe, a pledge, from Old English treow, faith. True and trust come from the same faith.
Proto-Germanic
*trewwō
Proto-West Germanic
*treuwu
Old English
trēowa
Middle English
trewes
English, today
truce
Built from
From Middle English trewes, triwes, trues, plural of trewe, triewe, true (“faithfulness, assurance, pact”), from Old English trēowa, singularized plural of trēow, trȳw (“faith; pledge; agreement”), from Proto-West Germanic treuwu, from Proto-Germanic trewwō (compare Dutch trouw, German Treue, Danish tro, French trêve [< gem -]), noun form of triwwiz (“trusty, faithful”). More at true.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA