renege

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin renegāre (“to deny, reject, renounce”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded from the 9th or 10th century, earliest in Italian sources,^[2] and formed from re- and Latin negō (“to deny”);^[2][4][7] Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the prefix as intensive.^[5][8] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ne- (“not”).^[5] The OED notes that because Old Occitan renegar is very frequent in the troubadours, the medieval Latin verb may be a calque on one or more Romance verbs rather than a Latin formation, and compares Catalan renegar, Spanish renegar, Portuguese renegar and Italian rinnegare.^[2] English had earlier renay and renegate.^[2] Renegade comes from the same verb.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To refuse or decline, with an infinitive: 1545, in E. Walshe's Office and Duety Fighting for Countrey.^[2] The more usual early sense, to renounce or deny, appears in 1548, in Udall's translation of Erasmus on the New Testament,^[2][4][6] which also has the intransitive sense of denying an accusation.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The early word was about denial and desertion, above all of one's faith.^[2] Shakespeare's rogues "renege, affirm" in King Lear,^[7][10] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "to disown".^[10] The technical use in cards, failing to follow suit, is recorded from 1674, in Cotton's Compleat Gamester, and Barnhart has 1680;^[2][4] a noun for the same fault is older still, from 1654.^[2] The sense that now dominates, going back on a promise or changing one's mind, was dated to 1784 by Barnhart and Etymonline, chiefly as American,^[4][5] but the revised OED has it from 1651, in Ogilby's Fables of Æsop.^[2] Three of the earlier OED's first four examples of this sense spell it renig or renigged,^[5] and renegue is still used in Britain.^[4][9] In Irish English it also came to mean breaking off an engagement or jilting someone, from before 1849.^[2] Synge's "I'll wed him, and I'll not renege" shows the promise sense.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 1545 – to refuse, decline (obsolete by 1866).^[2]
• 1548 – to renounce, abandon or deny, especially one's faith; to make a denial.^[2][4][6]
• 1651 – to go back on a promise or undertaking.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1784.^[4][5]
• 1654 – noun, in cards, a failure to follow suit.^[2]
• 1674 – verb, in cards, to fail to follow suit.^[2] Barnhart has 1680.^[4]
• 1679 – to retract a statement (obsolete by 1818).^[2]
• 1744 – to commit apostasy.^[2]
• before 1849 – in Irish English, to jilt.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To break a promise or fail to honour an agreement, usually with on: The landlord reneged on the repairs he had agreed to.^[3][9][6][2]
2. To change one's mind or back out of a position.^[6][2]
3. In card games, to fail to follow suit; to revoke.^[3][9][6][2]
4. (archaic) To renounce, disown or abandon, especially one's faith.^[3][11][2]
5. (regional) Chiefly in Irish English, to jilt someone, or break off relations with them.^[2]
6. (obsolete, 1545–1866) To refuse or decline.^[2][6][7]
7. (obsolete, 1548–1689) To deny a charge; to make a denial.^[2][6][7]

Noun

1. In card games, an act of reneging; a revoke.^[3][2][6][7]

Word family

• reneger

Related words

• abnegate
• neglect
• negative
• negotiate
• renegade
• renegation
• negate
• renegado
• renay

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press