forsake

English

Etymology

From Middle English forsaken ‎(“to reject, deny”), from Old English forsacan ‎(“to dispute, quarrel, refuse, oppose”), from Proto-Germanic *frasakaną ‎(“to renounce”), equivalent to for- +‎ sake. Akin to West Frisian fersaakje, Dutch verzaken ‎(“to renounce; forsake”), Middle High German versachen ‎(“to deny”), Danish forsage ‎(“to give up”), Norwegian forsake ‎(“to give up, renounce”), Swedish försaka ‎(“to give up, to be without”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 ‎(sakan, “to rebuke, quarrel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔɹˈseɪk/
• Rhymes: -eɪk

Verb

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

1. To abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce.
   • 1911: Ameen Rihani, The Book of Khalid, p.39

     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.

Translations

to abandon

• Arabic: هَجَرَ (ar) ‎(hajara)
• Armenian: լքել (hy) ‎(lkʿel)
• Bulgarian: напускам (bg) ‎(napuskam), изоставям (bg) ‎(izostavjam)
• Chinese:

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

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

• Indonesian: menelantarkan
• Italian: abbandonare (it)
• Japanese: 見捨てる ‎(みすてる, misuteru), 放棄する ‎(hōki-suru)
• Latin: desero (la)
• Norwegian: forlate (no)
• Polish: opuścić (pl), porzucić (pl)
• Portuguese: abandonar (pt)
• Romanian: abandona (ro), renunța (ro), lepăda (ro), părăsi (ro), lăsa (ro)
• Russian: (perfective) оста́вить (ru) ‎(ostávitʹ), (imperfective) оставля́ть (ru) ‎(ostavljátʹ), (perfective) поки́нуть (ru) ‎(pokínutʹ), (imperfective) покида́ть (ru) ‎(pokidátʹ)
• Spanish: abandonar (es)
• Swedish: försaka (sv), överge (sv)
• Turkish: bırakmak (tr), terketmek (tr), vazgeçmek (tr)

References

• forsake in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• Notes:

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Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• forsage

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frasakaną. Compare 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
2. to denounce (the devil)

Derived terms

• forsakelse

References

• “forsake” in The Bokmål Dictionary.