waiver

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman weyver, the Anglo-Norman infinitive "to abandon, waive" used as a noun,^[2][3][4][5] found in the 13th-century law book “Britton”.^[2] The same verb gave waive.^[6][7] Etymonline and Klein compare the other Anglo-French legal infinitives that became English nouns, such as attainder, disclaimer, merger, misnomer, ouster, rejoinder and retainer.^[6][5] The verb is a dialect variant of Old French gaiver, also guesver, to abandon, to let become a waif,^[2][5] from weyf, Old French gaif (“abandoned, ownerless”), the source of waif.^[2][7][5] Klein holds that this is of Scandinavian origin, and Klein and Etymonline compare Old Norse veifa (“to wave, swing about”), from Proto-Indo-European *weip- (“to turn, vacillate”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, the act of waiving, giving up a right or claim, or dispensing with a requirement: 1628, in Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England.^[2][4][8]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English legal language along with the verb waive, which in Middle English was used of rights, of goods and of women;^[6] Etymonline quotes Wharton's Law-Lexicon (1867), by which a woman could not be outlawed, since she had not sworn the oath of allegiance, and so the proceeding against her was called a waiver: she was "waived".^[6] In the Anglo-Norman of England the verb meant to abandon a claim, a place or a person, and to surrender one's rights, from 1212.^[9] The modern sense, an intentional giving up of a known right, extends to the document that records it.^[4][3][10] In 1894 waiver also named a clause in a company prospectus by which subscribers gave up a protection of the Companies Act,^[2] and Etymonline notes that in modern use the word is often short for waiver clause.^[6] In professional baseball from 1907, waivers were the giving up by a league's clubs of their right to claim a player whom another club wished to release or trade, a use since extended to other North American sports.^[2][6][3][4] A non-technical use, any act of waiving or setting aside, is recorded from 1883 but is rare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1212 – Anglo-Norman weyver, to abandon, give up a claim.^[9]
• 1628 – the act of waiving a right or claim (Coke).^[2][4]
• 1883 – in non-technical use, an act of setting aside (rare).^[2]
• 1894 – waiver clause, in a company prospectus.^[2][6]
• 1907 – in baseball, a club's giving up of its right to claim a player.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The intentional giving up of a known right, claim or privilege, expressly or by implication: The tenant signed a waiver of his right to a hearing.^[4][11][10]
2. A written statement or document recording such a giving up: Every rider had to sign a liability waiver.^[4][11][3]
3. (sports) The giving up by the other clubs of a professional league of their right to claim a player whom a club wants to release or trade; also on waivers, available to be claimed in this way.^[4][2][3]

Related words

• waive
• waif
• attainder
• disclaimer
• vibrate

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins