Other forms: resignations
A resignation is the formal act of leaving your job: you tell your employer, you work your notice, you hand over the letter. The word covers the letter itself — she put her resignation on his desk at nine on Monday morning.
It keeps fixed company: hand in a resignation, submit one, offer one, accept one, call for someone's resignation. In politics it is the ordinary end of a scandal, announced at six in a single sentence. The second meaning is a feeling, and a very different one: resignation is the quiet acceptance of something bad you cannot change. He shrugged with resignation. There was resignation in her voice. That sense gives you the adjective resigned — resigned to the delay, resigned to never hearing back.
1nounresignationThe formal act of giving up a job or position, or the letter that announces it.~96%
“The board accepted his resignation without any discussion.”
2nounacceptanceQuiet acceptance of something unpleasant that cannot be changed.~4%
“She listened with the resignation of someone who had heard it all before.”
synonyms: acceptance, forbearance
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 28 sentences found in the wild and placed 28 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Resignation came into Middle English as resignacioun, through Old French from Medieval Latin resignātiō. In English it is simply resign with -ation stuck on, the same ending that turns inform into information. The two meanings are both a form of letting go: letting go of a post, and letting go of the argument.
Medieval Latin
resignātiōnem
Old French
resignation
Middle English
resignacion
English, today
resignation
From Middle English resignacion, resignacioun, from Old French resignation, from Medieval Latin resignātiōnem, accusative of resignātio. Equivalent to resign + -ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA