If you can't simply wish something out of existence, the next best thing might be to "propose it away." That's more or less whatabrogate lets you do—etymologically speaking, at least.Abrogate comes from the Latin rootrogāre, which means "to ask, ask an assembly for approval of," andab-, meaning "from" or "away." Proposals aside, there’s no abrogating our responsibility to report thatrogāre is the root of a number of English words, includingprerogative,derogatory,arrogant,surrogate, andinterrogate. We'll also not abrogate our responsibility to warn against confusingabrogate with a similar word:arrogate means "to claim or seize without justification," as in "a group arrogating power to itself."Arrogate too can be traced back torogāre.

Should youabdicate,abrogate,abjure, or justresign?

Several words may be confused withabdicate through either a similarity of sound or of meaning. Among these areabrogate,abjure, andresign. All of these words have multiple meanings that are quite distinct from one another, yet each also has a degree of semantic overlap that renders them nearly synonymous with at least one of the others.

Abdicate is most often used to describe a head of state or member of a royal family voluntarily renouncing a position. It may also refer to the act of failing to fulfill a duty or responsibility. It shares this second meaning withabrogate (although the “failing to fulfill one’s duty” sense of this word is more common in the United Kingdom than in the United States). The senses ofabrogate most commonly found are “toannul” or “to do away with.”

Abjure may be used to mean “to abstain from” or “to give up,” but often is used with the meaning of “to disclaim formally or renounce upon oath” (it comes from the Latinjurare, meaning “to swear”).

And finally,resign is often used with the meaning of “to give up one’s office or position.”

Despite the similarities among these words, they tend to be used in fairly specific settings. You would not typically tell your employer that you areabdicating your position in order to look for a better job; you would say that you areresigning. And when the king of a country renounces his claim on the throne to marry his one true love, he would be said toabdicate, rather thanresign, his position.

borrowed from Latinabrogātus, past participle ofabrogāre, "to repeal (a law), repudiate, cancel," fromab-ab- +rogāre "to ask, ask an assembly for approval of" — more atrogation

circa 1520, in the meaning defined atsense 1

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