Apedia

English Abnegate Verb <Abnegated Root Noun Abnegation Process

Abnegate means to deny, renounce, surrender, or relinquish something.

To deny, renounce, surrender, or relinquish.

Front abnegate \ˈab-ni-ˌgāt\
Back transitive verb
1. Deny, renounce. <abnegated their God>
2. Surrender, relinquish. <abnegated her powers>

[There's no denying that the Latin root "negare" has given English some useful words. That verb, which means "to deny," is the ultimate source of the noun "abnegation," a synonym of "denial" that began appearing in English manuscripts in the 14th century. By the 17th century, people had concluded that if there was a noun "abnegation," there ought to be a related verb "abnegate," and so they created one by a process called "back-formation" (that's the process of trimming a suffix or prefix off a long word to make a shorter one). But "abnegate" and "abnegation" are not the only English offspring of "negare." That root is also an ancestor of other nay-saying terms such as "deny," "negate," and "renegade."]

"The mayor has ordered the city's finance control board to abnegate its powers."

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