Noun: abnegation
| Singular | abnegation |
| Plural | abnegations |
Sample Sentences
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With abnegation of God, of his honor, and of religion, they may retain the friendship of the court. [1558, John Knox, Letter to the Queen Dowager:]
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Tony's face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one, while in the case of monk and crusader there must have been a sustaining purpose, and possibly a great abnegation, a leaving of lands and possessions.” [1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:]
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We're repeatedly told how Chilean women were "trained since early childhood for a life of virtue, faith and abnegation," how "their fate was a marriage of convenience and motherhood. [1999 November 2, Michiko Kakutani, “Books of The Times: A Single Girl Takes On the California Frontier”, in The New York Times (E section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7:]
Nouns inflected like abnegation
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
First attested before 1398. From Middle English abnegacioun, borrowed from Latin abnegātiō, from abnegō (“refuse, deny”), from ab (“off”) + negō (“deny; refuse, say no”). Compare French abnégation. See: Latin Nouns '
abnegātiō', French Nouns '
abnégation'.