| 1 | Middle High German | pūse | — |
| 2 | Middle French | pause | pause |
| 3 | Latin | pausa | a pause, halt, stop, cessation, end |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | παῦσις | stopping, ceasing |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | -σῐς | "suffix forming nouns" |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | -τις | Earlier form of -σις , retained after dentals δ,... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tis | Derives abstract/action nouns from verb roots |