Other forms: abandoned, abandoning, abandons
To abandon something is to leave it for good and not come back. A car abandoned on the hard shoulder with its hazard lights blinking, a village abandoned after the mine shut, a dog left tied to a fence.
You abandon people, places, plans, and things you were in the middle of: they abandoned the search at dusk, she abandoned law and became a baker. Abandon is heavier than leave, because it carries the suggestion that something was left in trouble or that a duty was dropped — which is why abandon ship is an order given when there is nothing left to save. The adjective abandoned covers both the empty building and the child nobody came back for. There is a noun as well, and it is a surprise: abandon means wild freedom from restraint, so dancing with abandon has nothing to do with leaving anything behind.
1verbabandonTo leave a person, place or thing permanently, especially one that needs you.
“The crew abandoned the ship in heavy seas.”
2verbstopTo stop doing something before it is finished.
“They abandoned the match after twenty minutes of hail.”
3verbgiveTo give up an idea, a belief or a claim.
“The company abandoned its plan to build on the site.”
4nouncompleteComplete freedom from worry or self-control.
“She danced with an abandon that surprised everyone who knew her.”
Also accepted in games: desert
Abandon came from Old French, out of the phrase à bandon, 'at someone's control'. Bandon meant jurisdiction or power, from Latin bannum, 'a proclamation', which the Franks had as ban and which also gave English the word ban. To abandon something was to put it under whoever's power cared to take it — out of your keeping and into theirs.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeh₂-
Old French
abandoner
Middle English
abandounen
English, today
abandon
Built from
From Middle English abandounen, from Old French abandoner. From Middle English abandounen, from Old French abandoner, formed from à (“at, to”) + bandon (“jurisdiction, control”), from Latin bannum (“proclamation”), bannus, bandum, from Frankish ban, bann, from Proto-Germanic bannaną (“to proclaim, command”) (whence English ban), from Proto-Indo-European bʰeh₂- (“to speak”). See also ban, banal. Displaced Middle English forleten (“to abandon”), from Old English forlǣtan, anforlǣtan; see forlet; and Middle English forleven (“to leave behind, abandon”), from Old English forlǣfan; see forleave.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA