forsake

English

WOTD – 9 February 2021

Etymology

From Middle English forsaken (“to abandon, desert, repudiate, withdraw allegiance from; to deny, reject, shun; to betray; to divorce (a spouse); to disown; to be false to (one's nature, vows, etc.; to give up, renounce, surrender; to discard; to omit; to decline, refuse, reject; to avoid, escape; to cease, desist; to evade, neglect; to contradict, refute; to depart, leave; to become detached, separate”) [and other forms], from Old English forsacan (“to oppose; to give up, renounce; to decline, refuse”), from Proto-Germanic *frasakaną (“to forsake, renounce”), from *fra- (prefix meaning ‘away, off’) + *sakaną (“to charge; to dispute”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”)). The English word can be analysed as for- +‎ sake, and is cognate with Danish forsage (“to give up”), Dutch verzaken (“to renounce, forsake”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 (sakan, “to quarrel; to rebuke”), Middle High German versachen (“to deny”), Norwegian forsake (“to give up, renounce”), Swedish försaka (“to be without, give up”), West Frisian fersaakje.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔːˈseɪk/, /fə-/

• Audio (RP):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /fɔɹˈseɪk/
• Rhymes: -eɪk
• Hyphenation: for‧sake

Verb

forsake (third-person singular simple present forsakes, present participle forsaking, simple past forsook, past participle forsaken)

1. (transitive) To abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).
   • 1709, Matthew Prior, “Henry and Emma. […]”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan, […], published 1779, →OCLC, page 246:

     Let Prudence yet obſtruct thy venturous way; / And take good heed, what men will think and ſay: / That beauteous Emma vagrant courſes took; / Her father's houſe and civil life forſook; / That, full of youthful blood, and fond of man; / She to the wood-land with an exile ran.

   • 1726, N[athan] Bailey, “To ABANDON”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], 3rd edition, London: […] J. Darby, […], →OCLC:

     To ABANDON [...] to forſake utterly, to caſt off; to give up ones ſelf wholly to any prevailing Paſſion or Vice.

   • 1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, book the first (In the Exchange), page 36:

     There may be nothing noble in renouncing one's country, in abandoning one's home, in forsaking one's people; but is there not something remarkable in this great move one makes?

   • 1961 November, H. G. Ellison and P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 665:

     After the junction at Saincaize the line forsakes the Loire, which it has followed for many miles, for its great tributary the Allier, and runs through St. Germain-des-Fossés, the junction for St. Etienne, and Vichy to Clermont Ferrand.

   • 1998 February 4, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dave Polsky, “Damien”, in South Park, season 1, episode 10:

     Stan: You've got to fight, Jesus. / Jesus: Why, what's the point? No one believes in me. Everyone put their money on Satan. My father forsaked^[sic] me, the town forsaked^[sic] me. I'm completely forsook^[sic].

2. (transitive, obsolete) To decline or refuse (something offered).
3. (transitive, obsolete) To avoid or shun (someone or something).
4. (transitive, obsolete) To cause disappointment to; to be insufficient for (someone or something).

Conjugation

• Archaic second-person singular simple present form: forsakest
• Archaic third-person singular simple present indicative form: forsaketh

Derived terms

• forsaken (adjective)
• forsakenly
• forsakenness
• forsaker
• forsaking (noun)
• unforsaken

 

Translations

to abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something)

• Arabic: هَجَرَ (ar) (hajara)
• Armenian: լքել (hy) (lkʻel)
• Bulgarian: изоставям (bg) (izostavjam), напускам (bg) (napuskam)
• Catalan: abandonar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 放棄／放弃 (zh) (fàngqì), 放弃 (zh) (fàngqì), 拋棄／抛弃 (zh) (pāoqì), 抛弃 (zh) (pāoqì)

• Dutch: verzaken (nl), opgeven (nl)
• Estonian: hülgama (et)
• Finnish: hylätä (fi)
• French: abandonner (fr), renoncer (fr)
• German: aufgeben (de) (transitive), im Stich lassen (de), verlassen (de)
• Greek: απαρνούμαι (el) (aparnoúmai), αποκηρύσσω (el) (apokirýsso), εγκαταλείπω (el) (egkataleípo), παρατώ (el) (parató)

  Ancient: καταλείπω (kataleípō)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: cserben hagy (hu)
• Indonesian: menelantarkan (id)
• Italian: abbandonare (it), rinunciare (it)
• Japanese: 放棄する (hōki-suru), 見捨てる (ja) (みすてる, misuteru)
• Latin: deserō (la), relinquō
• Norwegian: forlate (no)
• Polish: opuścić (pl), porzucić (pl)
• Portuguese: abandonar (pt)
• Romanian: abandona (ro), lăsa (ro), lepăda (ro), părăsi (ro), renunța (ro)
• Russian: оста́вить (ru) (ostávitʹ) (perfective), оставля́ть (ru) (ostavljátʹ) (imperfective), поки́нуть (ru) (pokínutʹ) (perfective), покида́ть (ru) (pokidátʹ) (imperfective)
• Spanish: abandonar (es)
• Swedish: försaka (sv), överge (sv)
• Tocharian B: ār-
• Turkish: bırakmak (tr), terketmek (tr), vazgeçmek (tr)

Further reading

• “forsake”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “forsake”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• freakos

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Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• forsage

Etymology

From Low German vorsaken, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frasakaną. Cognate with Danish forsage, Swedish försaka, English forsake, Dutch verzaken.

Verb

forsake (imperative forsak, present tense forsaker, simple past and past participle forsaka or forsaket, present participle forsakende)

1. to give up, relinquish, forsake
2. to denounce (the devil)

Derived terms

• forsakelse

References

• “forsake” in The Bokmål Dictionary.