Resigning

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To voluntarily relinquish a job or role, to abandon a particular duty or responsibility willingly, and to acknowledge and accept an unchangeable circumstance without resistance
2. To voluntarily step down from a role or responsibility, to yield one’s position by choice, and to come to terms with an unalterable reality without protest
3. To give up a job or official role by choice ; to calmly accept a fact or condition that cannot be changed

Etymology: "Resigning" is the present participle of "resign", and the verb's core idea is literal: to unseal. Its Latin source, "resignare", combined "re-" (back, undo) with "signare" (to seal, stamp), so the original sense was to break a seal, cancel a document, or annul something that had been sealed. Over time the sense shifted from undoing a seal to giving something back, and from there to handing back an office or position. The verb reached English by way of Anglo-Norman "resigner" and Middle French "resigner", both carrying the same meanings of annulling and surrendering. The English word is a piecewise doublet of "re-sign", a close relative that kept the sense of signing or marking something again. The two forms developed from the same Latin root but ended up with different English uses.

Synonyms: quitting, departing, abandoning

Antonyms: retaining, holding