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Origin and history of forsake

forsake(v.)

Old English forsacan "object to, oppose, refuse, deny; give up, renounce" (past tense forsoc, past participle forsacen), from for- "completely" + sacan "to struggle, dispute, wrangle; accuse, blame" (see sake (n.1)). Related: Forsaking. Similar formation in Old Saxon farsakan, Dutch verzaken, Old High German farsahhan "deny, repudiate," Danish forsage "give up, refuse."

Forsake is chiefly applied to leaving that by which natural affection or a sense of duty should or might have led us to remain: as, to forsake one's home, friends, country, or cause; a bird forsakes its nest. In the passive it often means left desolate, forlorn. [Century Dictionary]

Entries linking to forsake

sake(n.1)

[purpose], Middle English sake "strife, discord, enmity, dispute; legal dispute; blame, sin, guilt;" from Old English sacu "a cause at law, crime, dispute, guilt," from Proto-Germanic *sako "affair, thing, charge, accusation" (source also of Old Norse sök "charge, lawsuit, effect, cause," Old Frisian seke "strife, dispute, matter, thing," Dutch zaak "lawsuit, cause, sake, thing," German Sache "thing, matter, affair, cause"), from PIE root *sag- "to investigate, seek out" (source also of Old English secan, Gothic sokjan "to seek;" see seek).

Much of the word's original meaning has been taken over by case (n.1) and cause (n.), and it survives largely in phrases for the sake of and for _______'s sake "out of consideration or regard for" a person or thing (c. 1200, as for God's sake, early 14c.), both those formations are said to be probably from Norse, as their like has not been found in Old English.

forsaken(adj.)

mid-13c., past-participle adjective from forsake. Related: Forsakenly.

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abandon
late 14c., "to give up (something) absolutely, relinquish control, give over utterly;" also reflexively, "surrender (oneself), yield (oneself) utterly" (to religion, fornication, etc.), from Old French abandonner "surrender, release; give freely, permit," also reflexive, "devote
desolate
mid-14c., of persons, "disconsolate, miserable, overwhelmed with grief, deprived of comfort;" late 14c., of persons, "without companions, solitary, lonely;" also, of places, "uninhabited, abandoned," from Latin desolatus, past participle of desolare "leave alone, desert," from de
desert
c. 1600, transitive, "to leave, abandon," either in a good or bad sense; 1640s, in reference to military service or duty, "leave without permission;" from French déserter "cause to leave," literally "undo or sever connection," from Late Latin desertare, frequentative of Latin des
derelict
abandoned by the owner or guardian," from Latin derelictus "solitary, deserted," past participle of dereliquere "to abandon, forsake..., desert," from de- "entirely" (see de-) + relinquere "leave behind, forsake, abandon, give up," from re- "back" (see re-...
reliquiae
adjective meaning "that is left, remaining, left over," a derivative of relinquere (perfective reliqui) "to leave behind, forsake...
destitution
from Latin destitutionem (nominative destitutio) "a forsaking, deserting," from destitutus, past participle of destituere "forsake...
relinquish
cease from;" from Old French relinquiss-, present-participle stem of relinquir (12c.), from Latin relinquere "leave behind, forsake...
ditch
"a trench made by digging," especially a trench for draining wet land," Middle English diche, from Old English dic "ditch, dike," a variant of dike (q.v.), which at first meant "an excavation," but later in Middle English was applied to the ridge or bank of earth thrown up in exc
strand
"shore, beach, land abutting a body of water," Middle English stronde, from Old English strand "sea-shore," from Proto-Germanic *strandaz (source also of Danish and Swedish strand "beach, shore, strand," Old Norse strönd "border, edge, shore," Old Frisian strond, Middle Dutch str
leave
Old English læfan "to allow to remain in the same state or condition; to let remain, allow to survive; to have left (of a deceased person, in reference to heirs, etc.); to bequeath (a heritage)," from Proto-Germanic *laibjanan (source also of Old Frisian leva "to leave," Old Saxo

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