Adopting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of beginning to use or follow a particular idea or method ; the legal process of accepting another person's child as a permanent member of one's family
2. Starting to apply or embrace a custom, plan, or belief ; formally assuming parental rights and responsibilities for someone else's child
3. Choosing to start or implement a new habit, system, or policy ; lawfully taking a child into one's family through legal procedures

Etymology: Adopting comes from the Latin "adoptare," meaning "to choose for oneself," built from "ad-" ("to") and "optare" ("to choose"). The same root gives English "option," which carries the idea of choosing. Latin "adoptare" passed into English through Old French and Middle English, and the word has long meant taking someone in by choice, not just by blood. The sense of taking on a practice or policy developed later than the sense of taking a child into a family. Over time, the word stopped describing only personal choices about people and came to describe any decision to make something one's own, whether a belief, a method, or a set of rules.

Synonyms: embracing, accepting, taking on, assimilating, endorsing

Antonyms: rejecting, abandoning, disavowing, dismissing, renouncing