abrogate

English

WOTD – 22 September 2009

Alternative forms

Etymology

First attested in 1526, from Middle English abrogat (abolished), from Latin abrogātus, perfect passive participle of abrogō (repealed), formed from ab (away) + rogō (ask, inquire, propose). See rogation.

Pronunciation

  • (adjective):
    • (UK) enPR: ă.bʹrə.gət, IPA(key): /ˈæ.bɹə.ɡət/
    • (US) IPA(key): /ˈæb.ɹəˌɡət/
  • (verb):
    • (UK) enPR: ăbʹrōgāt, ăbʹrəgāt, IPA(key): /ˈæb.ɹəʊ.ɡeɪt/, /ˈæ.bɹə.ɡeɪt/
    • (US) IPA(key): /ˈæb.ɹoʊˌɡeɪt/, /ˈæb.ɹəˌɡeɪt/

Verb

abrogate (third-person singular simple present abrogates, present participle abrogating, simple past and past participle abrogated)

  1. (transitive) To annul by an authoritative act; to abolish by the authority of the maker or her or his successor; to repeal; — applied to the repeal of laws, decrees, ordinances, the abolition of customs, etc. [First attested in the early 16th century.][2]
    • 1660, Robert South, “The Scribe instructed, &c.”, in Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume 2, page 252:
      But let us look a little further, and see whether the New Testament abrogates what we see so frequently used in the Old.
    • 1796, Edmund Burke, Letter I. On the Overtures of Peace.:
      Whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persian, they cannot alter or abrogate.
  2. (transitive) To put an end to; to do away with. [First attested in the early 16th century.][2]
  3. (molecular biology, transitive) To block a process or function.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

Adjective

abrogate (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Abrogated; abolished. [First attested from around (1350 to 1470).][2]
    • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 4:
      Where hunters and woodcutters once slept in their boots by the dying light of their thousand fires and went on, old teutonic forebears with eyes incandesced by the visionary light of a massive rapacity, wave on wave of the violent and insane, their brains stoked with spoorless analogues of all that was, lean aryans with their abrogate semitic chapbook reenacting the dramas and parables therein and mindless and pale with a longing that nothing save dark's total restitution could appease.

References

  1. Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 4
  2. “abrogate” in Lesley Brown, editor, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 8.

Further reading

  • abrogate at OneLook Dictionary Search
  • abrogate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Verb

abrogate

  1. second-person plural present indicative of abrogare
  2. second-person plural imperative of abrogare
  3. feminine plural of abrogato

Latin

Pronunciation

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /a.broˈɡaː.te/, [a.brɔˈɡaː.tɛ]

Verb

abrogāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of abrogō
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