www.alphadictionary.com

• abjure •

Pronunciation: æb-jur • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To renounce, reject, disavow emphatically or solemnly, as to abjure cabs and busses in favor of walking. 2. To recant, take back, as to abjure a previous stance on the war.

Notes: The act of abjuring is abjuration, and someone who engages in such is an abjurer. Abjure has a stronger sense than reject. We might reject something and later accept it again; however, we would hardly return to something we have abjured. Abjure would be the term for legal rejection, as a legal abjuration of any claim on an inheritance. To disavow something is simply to deny any connection with it or responsibility for it.

In Play: Anything strongly, legally, or emphatically rejected is abjured: "The current trend is to abjure physical pain (on the child) in bringing up children." Abjuration in the second sense of the word can imply emphatically breaking off or away from: "Madeleine abjured her engagement to Ezekiel when she discovered that he was addicted to crossword puzzles."

Word History: This word comes to us from Latin abiurare "deny on oath" (Latin had no J), made up of ab "away (from)" + iurare "to swear" (an oath). Iurare is based on ius "law, justice" (iur-is "of law, of justice"), the origin of English jury. This root is also visible in several other English legal words borrowed from Latin such as jurisprudence and jurisdiction. Latin seems to be the only Indo-European language interested in this root, but it was put to wide use there; it also appears in iustus, the origin of English just and justice. (It is only just that we thank Mark Bailey for suggesting today's Good Word, so I will not abjure that responsibility: Thank you, Mark.)

In perhaps the most egregious recorded instance of abjuration Galileo was forced to formally abjure his heliocentric beliefs by the Church at a show trial in 1616:

"On being brought to trial, Galileo made a formal abjuration, and on June 30th Pope Urban VIII. ordered the publication of the sentence, thereby, according to Roman ecclesiastical law, making Galileo's compulsory denial of the earth's motion binding on all Christians as a theological doctrine."

http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/c ... 0?start=11

On the "lighter" side to kick off a diet with proper solemnity many dieters abjure their interest in cream puffs, chocolate mousse, Danish pasteries, and other fat-bearing temptations.

Not our interests, sir, merely the things themselves. For the moment.

Not our interests, sir, merely the things themselves. For the moment.

Speaking in the Majestic Plural?

MTC: I'm not at all sure what Perry meant in his cryptic one liner. But knowing Perry, he never speaks in the Majestic Plural.

When I diet, I abjure eclairs, but not my interest in them. I simply tell myself, "Self, you can have one after you lose five pounds." And the plural came from the original posts "many dieters," as I took the liberty of speaking for most of us.