Remitted

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have sent back or relinquished a financial obligation, to have excused someone from their duties or responsibilities, and to have mitigated or revoked a formal sanction or penalty
2. Has transferred money or payment to another party ; has officially forgiven or canceled a debt or punishment ; has lessened the strength or impact of something
3. Has forwarded funds to a recipient ; has excused someone by canceling their owed duties or penalties ; has caused a decrease in force or seriousness

Etymology: "Remitted" is the past tense and past participle of "remit," so its history is that of the verb itself. The verb came into Middle English from Latin "remittere," meaning "to send back" or "to send again," built from "re-" (back) and "mittere" (to send). That same root gives English "mission," "missile," and "emit," all of which keep the sense of sending something out or away. The idea of sending back is what links the verb's senses. Sending money back to someone became paying it, and sending a debt or penalty back, or letting it go, became forgiving or cancelling it. A further sense, to slacken or lessen something, grows from the same notion of letting something go back down or ease off. The verb reached English through Middle English "remitten" and shares its ancestry with Old French "remettre" and "remitter," which carried the Latin sense into French. Its form in English has stayed close to the Latin meaning throughout.

Synonyms: refunded, returned, sent back, absolved, discharged

Antonyms: charged, claimed, withheld, retained, demanded