renounce

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English renouncen, also renounse and renoncen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French renoncier (“to give up, cede”),^[5][2][6] Anglo-Norman renouncer, renouncier,^[6] and directly borrowed from Latin renūntiō (“to bring back word; to proclaim; to protest against, renounce”).^[5][6][2][7] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back, against”) and nūntiō (“to report, announce”),^[5][3][8] from nūntius (“messenger”),^[5][3][7] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace to Proto-Indo-European *neu- (“to shout”);^[5][3] Barnhart calls nūntius of uncertain origin.^[7] In French the verb is recorded from about 1155, meaning "to announce, declare"; by about 1245 it also meant "to give something up".^[6] It is related to announce, denounce and pronounce.^[6][9] The card-playing noun follows French renonce (“failure to follow suit”).^[6][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give up a right or claim, to resign: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[7] The OED's first record is from before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, with to ("to make renunciation of").^[6] Chaucer used the word once and Gower twice.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The first English uses were legal and formal: to give up, resign or surrender a right, an office or a possession.^[6][2][5] From this the verb was extended to giving up beliefs (1446) and habits or ways of life (about 1480),^[6] to repudiating a law or authority (about 1450),^[6] to disowning God (1502)^[6] and to disclaiming a person (1582).^[6][10] Etymonline dates the sense "abandon, discontinue" a habit to the late 15th century and "disclaim relationship with" a person to about 1500.^[5] The Latin sense "announce, proclaim" was also borrowed, but lasted only from late Middle English to the early 17th century.^[10][11] In card games, from the mid-17th century, to renounce is to play a card of another suit when one has none of the suit led;^[10][13] the noun, from about 1720, follows the French renonce.^[6][10] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to disown; to abnegate" and "to quit upon oath".^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – to give up, resign, in Chaucer's Boece.^[7]
• before 1393 – to make renunciation of, with to.^[6]
• c. 1400 – to give up a claim, right or possession.^[6]
• 1446 – to abandon a belief by open declaration.^[6]
• c. 1450 – to repudiate a law or authority.^[6]
• c. 1480 – to give up a practice or way of life.^[6]
• 1582 – to disown a person.^[6]
• c. 1604 – in law, to refuse to act as executor.^[6]
• c. 1720 – noun, in cards, a failure to follow suit.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give up a claim, title or right, especially by a formal declaration: He renounced his right to the estate.^[13][11][6]
2. To give up or abandon a habit, belief or way of life: She renounced alcohol after the accident.^[13][11][6]
3. To repudiate or disown; to refuse to recognize a person, authority or faith any longer.^[13][11][10]
4. (law) To decline or give up a right or position, especially that of executor or heir.^[6][10]
5. In cards, to fail to follow suit because one has no card of the suit led.^[13][10]
6. (obsolete, late 14th–early 17th century) To announce or proclaim.^[11][10]

Noun

1. In cards, a failure to follow suit, or an instance of renouncing.^[11][6][10]

Word family

• renouncement
• renouncer
• renounceable
• unrenounced
• nonrenouncing
• unrenouncing

Related words

• renunciation
• announce
• denounce
• pronounce
• nuncio

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's distinction: to renounce is to declare strongly that one gives up an opinion, profession or pursuit for ever, as a pretender renounces his claim, while to recant is to declare publicly that one gives up a belief because it was wrong, which implies adopting the opposite belief.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.