Renounce

Renounce

Verb · /rɪˈnaʊns/ · to formally give up or reject a claim, belief, title, or practice; to publicly disavow

Definition

To renounce is to formally and publicly give something up — a right, a title, a belief, a habit, a citizenship. The act is deliberate and declarative: you are not just stopping, you are announcing that you are stopping and that you intend never to return. Renounce carries the weight of finality and conviction. You renounce a throne, a religion, a violent past, or your claim to an inheritance.

Origin

From Old French renoncer and Latin renuntiare — to announce against, to protest, to report back. The root combines re- (back, against) and nuntiare (to announce), from nuntius (messenger). To renounce was originally to send back a message — a formal declaration that something was being given up. The word entered English in the 14th century with its full legal and religious weight already intact.