Abandonment is leaving somebody or something for good. Child abandonment, abandonment of the plan, fear of abandonment.
It is a legal and psychological term as much as an everyday one: abandonment of a property, abandonment of a claim, and in attachment theory a fear of abandonment shapes how people behave in relationships. It also means unrestrained freedom of feeling — dancing with abandon, which uses the shorter form. Note abandon as noun and verb; and abandoned, which can mean either deserted or uninhibited.
1nounabandonmentLeaving somebody or something for good.
“The abandonment of the old farmhouse left it open to wind and rain.”
2noununrestrainedUnrestrained freedom of feeling.
“The children danced with wild abandonment at the party.”
abandonment is a leaving or a release.
French abandonnement comes from a phrase meaning to put under somebody else's jurisdiction — mettre à bandon. Ban and banish come from the same bandum, an order.
Medieval Latin
bandum
French
abandonnement
English, today
abandonment
Built from
French abandonnement, from abandonner (“to abandon, relinquish”). abandonner was originally equivalent to mettre à bandon (“to leave to the jurisdiction, i.e. of another”), bandon being from Medieval Latin bandum, bannum (“order, decree, ban”). Equivalent to abandon + ment. (See also English banns.)
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA