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Just as a jury swears to produce an unbiased verdict, and a witness swears to tell the truth on pain of perjury, those who abjure their former ways "swear them away." Abjure (as well as jury and perjury) comes from Latin jurare, which means "to swear" (and which in turn is based on the root jus, meaning "law"), plus the prefix ab-, meaning "away." These days, we can casually abjure (that is, abstain from) various vices, but in the 15th and 16th centuries to abjure was a matter of renouncing something under oath—and sometimes a matter of life and death. For example, during the Spanish Inquisition, individuals were given the choice between abjuring unacceptable beliefs and being burned at the stake.
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Examples of abjure in a Sentence
Idrees Kahloon, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
In the end, de Hales agreed to abjure the realm, which meant walking, barefoot, to the port of Chester, a hundred and thirty miles away, holding a wooden cross and wearing sackcloth, and taking a ship across the Irish Sea, never to return.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2024
Elite progressive educational institutions were unlikely to experience a radical moral epiphany the moment the Supreme Court made its ruling, and abjure their discriminatory impulses and racial fixations.
—The Editors, National Review, 8 Aug. 2023
This scenario—the Russian nationalist who abjures the war—is Ukraine’s quickest path to some sort of victory.
—Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2023
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Cite this Entry
“Abjure.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abjure. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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abjure
verb
Legal Definition
abjure
transitive verb
Latin abjurare, from ab- off + jurare to swear
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