Abandon

Old French abandoner, from Latin ab (away from), and bannum (proclamation, edict).

The Old French phrase mettre a bandon meant “to send under the control, or jurisdiction of another.”  Pontius Pilate attempts “mettre a bandon” in the gospel of Luke.  Eager to rid himself of Christ, he sends Him to Herod Antipas.  Antipas promptly sends Him back.  Both men are eager to “abandon” Christ.

1. To forsake entirely. 

2. To renounce and forsake. 

3. To give up. 

4. To resign; to yield; to relinquish.

He abandoned the cares of the empire to his wiser colleague.

-Edward Gibbon, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”

 “Two seemingly unconnected events heralded the summons of Mr. George Smiley from his dubious retirement.  The first had for its background Paris, and for a season the boiling month of August, when Parisians by tradition abandon their city to the scalding sunshine and the bus loads of packaged tourists.”

-John le Carre, “Smiley’s People”