abandonment

Etymology

The revised OED takes it as formed from English abandon + -ment, comparing French abandonnement.^[1] Etymonline, Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford and Webster's Third derive it from that French word,^[2][3][4] Old French abandonement, from abandoner (“to give up”), the source of the English verb abandon.^[2][3] The French noun meant devotion of oneself from about 1230, surrender in Anglo-Norman (abandunement) from the first half of the 13th century, and renunciation from 1345.^[1] Johnson (1755) also gave the French form as its source.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The surrender of oneself to a passion or influence: 1593, in Thomas Nashe's Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem.^[1][3] Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s, in the sense "the act of relinquishing to another".^[2]

Semantic evolution

Nashe also used it in 1599 for the state of being abandoned by others.^[1] The general sense, the act of giving up or forsaking something, is recorded from 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[1] Etymonline dates the deserting of one's family or principles to 1788 and the condition of being forsaken to 1839.^[2] In commercial law, especially marine insurance, it was the giving up of insured property to the underwriters after a loss, from 1787,^[1] and more generally the law uses it for giving up a right or claim with no intention of reclaiming it.^[6][2] From 1834, in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, it also meant uninhibited freedom of manner, like the noun abandon.^[1][4] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "the act of abandoning" and "the state of being abandoned".^[5]

Timeline

• 1593 – surrender of oneself to a passion or influence.^[1]
• 1599 – the state of being abandoned.^[1]
• 1611 – the act of giving up or forsaking something.^[1]
• 1787 – in marine insurance, giving up insured property to the underwriters.^[1]
• 1788 – the deserting of one's family or principles.^[2]
• 1834 – uninhibited freedom of manner.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of abandoning someone or something, or the state of being abandoned: the abandonment of the old railway line.^[3][1][4]
2. The desertion of a spouse or child.^[3]
3. (law) The giving up of a right, claim or property with no intention of reclaiming it, as of insured goods to the underwriters after a loss.^[6][3][1]
4. Complete freedom from inhibition; abandon.^[1][4]

Word family

• nonabandonment

Related words

• abandoned
• abandonee
• abandon

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West