Unsubscription

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of ending or canceling a previously agreed subscription service
2. The act of formally stopping participation in or receipt of a subscription
3. Ceasing to be subscribed to a service, thereby canceling future access or delivery

Etymology: "Unsubscription" is a plain formation: the prefix "un-" attached to "subscription," so it means the reversal of a subscription. The prefix "un-" is an ancient English element that, when added to a noun, expresses the undoing or removal of what the noun names. Its use with nouns, rather than only with verbs and adjectives, was productive in English, which is why speakers could coin forms like this one as needed. The base word "subscription" comes from Latin "subscribere," meaning to write underneath, a sense that survives in signing one's name at the foot of a document. From that signing of a name came the idea of pledging money or support, and eventually of paying regularly for a service or publication. "Unsubscription" therefore reverses that later sense: it is the act of cancelling the regular arrangement, not the act of writing one's name beneath a page.

Synonyms: cancellation, opt-out, removal

Antonyms: subscription, enrollment, membership