Word of the Day

: December 5, 2018

abandon

noun uh-BAN-dun

What It Means

: a thorough yielding to natural impulses; especially : enthusiasm, exuberance

abandon in Context

The winning photograph was of a dog bounding with abandon through a field of snow.

"The drum solo has long been a concert punchline. Foo Fighters, in recognition of that, made Hawkins' solo as ridiculous and over the top as possible. His drum kit, perched upon a hydraulic lift, soared twenty feet in the air as he pounded the skins with reckless abandon." — Jim Ryan, Forbes, 19 Oct. 2018

Did You Know?

The sense of abandon defined above is a relative newcomer to the English language, dating from the early 1800s, but an earlier noun sense, defined as "the act of abandoning," was in use in the 1600s. The earlier sense was influenced by the verb abandon, which was borrowed by Middle English in the 1300s from Anglo-French abanduner. The Anglo-French term in turn came from the phrase (mettre) a bandun, meaning "to hand over" or "to put in someone's control." The newer sense has been more directly influenced by French abandon, which means not only "abandonment or surrender" but also "freedom from constraint."