abnegate
verb
transitive verb
Did you know?
Abnegate Has Latin Roots
There's no denying that the Latin root negāre has given English some useful words. That verb, which means "to deny," is the source of the noun abnegation, a synonym of denial. In time, people 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 an affix off a long word to make a shorter one). Other English offspring of negāre are deny, negate, and renegade.
Synonyms
- abdicate
- cede
- relinquish
- renounce
- resign
- step aside (from)
- step down (from)
- surrender
Example Sentences
Jan Engoren, Sun-Sentinel.com, 6 July 2017 Word History
borrowed from Latin abnegātus, past participle of abnegāre "to refute, decline, deny," from ab- ab- + negāre "to say no, deny" — more at negate
1543, in the meaning defined at sense 1
abnegations
noun
Synonyms & Similar Words
- refusals
- renouncements
- denials
- renunciations
- repudiations
- self-abnegations
- self-denials
- surrenders
- resignations
- relinquishments
- self-renunciations
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- indulgences
- acceptances
- embracements
- self-indulgences
- adoptions
- embraces
- espousals