Relinquishment

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of voluntarily giving up a claim, possession, or right to something
2. The process of surrendering control or ownership of something willingly
3. The action of abandoning or renouncing a title, claim, or responsibility

Etymology: Relinquishment is a plain English formation: the verb "relinquish" plus the suffix "-ment", which turns a verb into a noun naming the act or result of doing something. The verb itself comes through Old French "relenquir" and Middle French "relinquir" from Latin "relinquere", meaning "to leave behind", built from "re-" (back, again) and "linquere" (to leave). So at its root the idea is simply leaving something behind, and the sense of letting go of a claim or right grew out of that. The suffix has a longer ancestry. Its Latin form "-mentum" attached to verbs to form nouns of action or means, and it passed into English through Old French "-ment". English speakers then attached it freely to existing verbs, which is why so many words in "-ment" (such as "judgment" and "establishment") sit alongside one another in the language.

Synonyms: surrender, abandonment, forfeiture, yielding

Antonyms: retention, holding, keeping, possession