forsake

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English forsaken,^[2][3] inherited from Old English forsacan (“to object to, oppose, refuse, deny, give up”), past tense forsōc, past participle forsacen.^[4][5][2] The verb is formed from Old English for- (“completely”) + sacan (“to struggle, dispute, accuse”),^[4][6][7] and is of West Germanic origin.^[8][9][10] The base verb is related to sake¹, from sacu (“a cause at law, dispute”),^[6][11][4] and goes back to Proto-Germanic *sakaną (“to charge, dispute”), with Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 (sakan, “to dispute, quarrel”) among its cognates.^[12][13][3] The American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline trace the family to Proto-Indo-European *sāg- (“to seek out”),^[14][4] from which seek comes too.^[4][15] Similar formations are Old Saxon forsakan, Dutch verzaken, Old High German firsahhan (“to deny, repudiate, renounce”) and Danish forsage (“to give up, refuse”).^[7][4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To decline or refuse something offered: about 700 in Old English, according to Barnhart,^[6] and first quoted by the OED from the Corpus Glossary.^[7] Bosworth–Toller glosses it with the Latin detrectāre and recūsāre, and quotes a law that no one should refuse the king's coin.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains the development as "accuse, quarrel with", hence "decline", and finally "give up".^[15] In Old English laws it could mean refusing to carry out a court's judgement, and of kinsmen, disowning a relative.^[16] The sense of giving up something valued is also Old English,^[7] and it passes into the main modern sense: to leave entirely and to withdraw one's presence, help or companionship.^[7][10] Barnhart finds that sense probably before 1200, in Laȝamon's chronicle,^[6] while the OED's first quotation is from the Cursor Mundi, before 1300.^[7] Middle English also used the verb for repudiating God or a lord, betraying a king, and divorcing a wife.^[2][7] Chaucer has it 38 times, for abandoning, disavowing or refusing.^[17] These senses of denial and refusal died out in the 16th and early 17th centuries.^[7][10] Johnson (1755) gave "to leave in resentment, neglect, or dislike", "to go away from" and "to desert; to fail", derived it from Dutch, and allowed forsook as well as forsaken for the participle.^[18] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, says that it is chiefly used of leaving what natural affection or duty should have held one to, such as home, friends or a cause.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 700 – to decline or refuse something offered (obsolete by 1605).^[6][7]
• Old English – to give up, surrender something valued.^[7]
• c. 1175 – to renounce a practice, belief or sin.^[7]
• before 1200 – to abandon, desert, in Laȝamon.^[6] The OED's first quotation is from before 1300.^[7]
• before 1225 – to renounce allegiance to God or a lord (obsolete by 1537).^[7]
• c. 1250 – the adjective forsaken.^[6]
• 1297 – to deny an accusation or fact (obsolete by 1510).^[7]
• 1526 – of things, to fail or disappoint (obsolete by 1774).^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leave entirely; to abandon or desert someone or something, especially when affection or duty ought to keep one there: She forsook her village for the city.^[19][3][7]
2. To renounce or give up something valued or long held, such as a habit or belief: He vowed to forsake gambling.^[19][3][7]
3. (obsolete, Old English–1605) To decline or refuse something offered.^[7][10]
4. (obsolete, c. 1225–1576) To avoid or shun.^[7][10]
5. (obsolete, 1297–1510) To deny an accusation or an alleged fact.^[7][10]
6. (obsolete, 1526–1774) Of things: to fail someone.^[7][18]

Word family

• forsaker
• forsaken
• godforsaken

Related words

• sake
• keepsake
• namesake
• seek

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer
17. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
18. ^ 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.
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins