renoncer

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʁə.nɔ̃.se/^[1]

Forms

renoncer^[1] Old French renoncier (about 1155); renoncer from the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin renūntiō (“to report back; to send back; to renounce”),^[4][2][5][6] formed with re- (“back”) and nūntiō (“to announce”), of the family of nūntius (“messenger”) (compare nonce).^[2][7] In Latin the verb had come to mean “to give up the use of something”, in law “to repudiate a contract”, and in Late Latin, in the Church, “to forsake the world”.^[2][5]

Compare Old Occitan renunciar, Spanish renunciar and Italian rinunziare.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Roman de Brut (about 1155) uses renoncier for “to announce, report”;^[4][2] this sense, with “to explain” (about 1220), lasted until the 15th century, when it gave way to annoncer.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Before the end of the 12th century it took the sense “to stop claiming something”: renoncer à is in a charter of 1255, and with an infinitive about 1260.^[2][4][3] With other objects it meant “to give up the use or enjoyment of something” (1274).^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg date the verb and renonciation in this legal use to 1247.^[5]

The transitive sense “to deny, disown” (about 1320) fell out of common use after the 17th century but survives in literary style, and in Belgian French for giving notice to a tenant.^[2][4] The religious sense of Christian Latin returns in Calvin (1541), with renoncer à soi-même and renoncer au monde.^[4][2] Richelet (1680) records it as a card-playing term, and renonce in cards dates from 1690.^[4][5] renoncement is from the 15th century.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1155 – Renoncier “to announce”, in Wace.^[4]
• 1247 – Legal renoncer and renonciation.^[5]
• 1255 – Renoncer à.^[4]
• c. 1260 – Renoncer à with an infinitive.^[4]
• c. 1320 – “To disown”.^[4]
• 15th century – Renoncement.^[5]
• 1541 – Renoncer à soi-même, au monde, in Calvin.^[4]
• 1680 – A card-playing term, in Richelet.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. Renoncer à: to give up, renounce (a right, a claim): renoncer à un droit, à une succession.^[7][3][1]
2. Renoncer à: to give up the idea of: renoncer à un voyage; with an infinitive, renoncer à comprendre.^[7]
3. Renoncer à: to forsake (pleasures, the world): renoncer au monde, renoncer à soi-même.^[3][4]
4. To resign, quit.^[1]
5. (literary, transitive) To disown, deny, (Belgium) to give notice to (a tenant).^[2]

Word family

• renoncement
• renonce

Related words

• renonciation
• annoncer
• nonce

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 258a
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette