Cease and desist

Explain the phrase "cease and desist". Isn't desist pretty similar to cease anyway?

ChatGPT:

Good catch — you're right that "cease" and "desist" both essentially mean stop.

So why the redundancy?
Because "cease and desist" is a legal formula, not normal conversational English. In legal writing, doubling up similar words is traditional and deliberate — a holdover from when English law blended Old English, French, and Latin influences. Lawyers used pairs of near-synonyms from different languages to make sure everyone, regardless of linguistic background, understood the meaning. Examples include phrases like:
• "null and void"
• "terms and conditions"
• "aid and abet"

In this case:
• Cease comes from Old French ceser (Latin cessare)
• Desist comes from Latin desistere

They overlap, but together they create an emphatic, formal command:

"Stop doing this and do not start again."

A "cease and desist letter", then, means:

"We are demanding that you immediately stop this action and refrain from continuing or resuming it in the future."

So yes — it's a bit repetitive, but intentionally so for clarity and force in legal contexts.