relinquish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English relinquishen, also relinquisshen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French relinquiss-, the extended stem of relinquir,^{[5][6][7][8][2]} a variant of relenquir;^[2][5] compare the English verb suffix -ish.^[5][7][9] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster give the source as Middle French.^[9][4] The French verb is from Latin relinquō (“to leave behind, forsake, abandon”),^[5][6][7][3] from re- and linquō (“to leave”),^[6][7][10] from Proto-Indo-European *leikʷ- (“to leave”),^[10][6][3] the root also of lend and loan.^[3][4][11] Weekley posited Vulgar Latin *relinquiō in place of the classical verb.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give up or withdraw (a lawsuit): 1454, in a London letter-book, where a suitor is ordered "to relinquisshe and withdrawe" his action.^[5][2] Barnhart and Etymonline give the first sense as to desert or abandon a person.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

In the later 15th century the verb was used of abandoning a person (1472–3, in the Rolls of Parliament), a sense now obsolete,^[5][6][2] and of surrendering a possession or right (1479, in Earl Rivers's translation of the Cordyal).^[5] Barnhart dates the sense "to give up an idea, desist from" to 1497.^[9] From 1548 to 1679 it could mean simply to leave behind,^[5] and since 1594 to annul a legal document, now rare.^[5] The physical sense "to let go of something held" followed in 1651, and "to release one's grip" in 1678.^[5]

Timeline

• 1454 – to give up, desist from (a lawsuit, an action).^[5][2]
• 1472 – to abandon (a person).^[5][2]
• 1479 – to give up, surrender (a possession or right).^[5]
• 1548 – to leave behind (obsolete by 1679).^[5]
• 1594 – to annul (a legal document).^[5]
• 1651 – to let go of (something held).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give up or stop doing something, such as a task, plan or practice; to abandon: After the injury he relinquished his hopes of a racing career.^[13][4][5]
2. To surrender or renounce a claim, right, office or possession, often to another: The founder relinquished control of the firm to her daughter.^[13][4][5]
3. To let go of something held; to release one's grip.^[13][5]

Word family

• relinquisher
• relinquishment
• unrelinquished
• unrelinquishing

Related words

• delinquent
• delinquency
• delict
• derelict
• relic
• relict
• reliquary
• reliquiae
• lend
• loan

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins