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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > RESIGN

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pronounce RESIGN:

ruh ZINE

(Or, if you prefer, "ree ZINE.")

Hear it.
connect this word to others:

Our word resign looks like sign, signal, significant, and sign___ (meaning "to show, to represent") because all those words trace back to the Latin signum, meaning "a mark."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

"Resign" comes from a Latin word that literally means "to give back" or "to give up."

Very often, to resign means to give up your job or your position: to officially leave that role. 

But you can also resign (give up) anything, like your hopes or your desires, or even yourself: you could resign yourself to someone else's care or guidance, meaning you're giving yourself to that person, placing all your confidence in them. So, in that sense, to resign something is to give it up and let it go, or let someone else have it.

And, you can resign (give) yourself to some unpleasant situation. In that sense, to resign yourself to something is to accept that unhappy situation for yourself, even though you don't like it, usually because you can't avoid it.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, both the transitive kind ("She resigned herself to a dreary afternoon") and the intransitive kind ("They resigned from their jobs").

Other forms: 

resigned, resigning, resignation (say it "REZ ig NAY shun")

how to use it:

"Resign" is a common, formal word.

We do often talk about people resigning from their jobs or positions.

But in this issue, we'll focus on the other meanings. For these, the word "resign" helps you point out how someone's acceptance of some situation is both realistic and bleak.

Talk about people resigning themselves to unpleasant tasks, to unhappy relationships, and to situations that are uncomfortable.

Or, talk about people frowning in resignation, sighing in resignation, or enduring things in patient, quiet, or silent resignation.

examples:

"Baba sensed my lack of genuine interest and resigned himself to the bleak fact that his son was never going to either play or watch soccer."
   — Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 2003

"All the pride and strength seemed to drain out of him, his shoulders hunched up and his head hanging down in resignation."  
   — Aden Polydoros, The City Beautiful, 2021

has this page helped you understand "resign"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meanings  of "resign" without saying "give up" or "give yourself up to a situation."

try it out:

As we've seen, resignation is that sense of "Ugh, yeah, fine, alright."

The opposite is resistance! A sense of "Nope! No way! Not okay!"

That is, the opposite of resigning yourself to a situation is refusing to accept it: fighting against it, trying to change it.

That idea comes up in this great Fiona Apple song called "Fetch the Bolt Cutters." She explained:

"It’s about breaking out of whatever prison you've allowed yourself to live in, whether you built that prison for yourself or whether it was built around you and you just accepted it. The message in the whole record is just: Fetch the f***ing bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation that you're in — whatever it is that you don't like."

With that in mind for inspiration, talk about a time you decided to fetch the bolt cutters, instead of resigning yourself to an unbearable situation.




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for January: "Is That a Real Word?"

In each issue, I’ll give you three, um, written phenomena. You decide if each is a real word—and most importantly—why or why not. If someone were to dispute your judgment, how would you defend it? For fun, try comparing your responses with a companion’s. And if you like, you can compare yours with mine, which I’ll list at the bottom of the issue.

Try these today:  Out of "eated," "Muggle," and "pic," which, if any, are real words?

review this word:

1. Opposites of RESIGNED include

A. DEFIANT and RESISTANT.
B. PURE and UNADULTERATED.
C. PLODDING and MONOTONOUS.

2. In Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's book Farewell to Manzanar, the characters express a sense of resignation with the phrase _____

A. "itai doushin," meaning "two bodies, same heart."
B. "shikata ga nai," meaning "it must be done" or "it can't be helped."
C. "kuchi wa wazawai no moto," meaning "the mouth is the source of disaster."




Answers to the review questions:
1. A
2. B

Let's compare notes from the game: I say all three are real!

"Eated:" when your toddler says it, it makes perfect sense and reveals how insane English is. Dictionaries don't list it, though.

"Muggle," from the Harry Potter stories, has entered popular speech and the Oxford English Dictionary! Even before those books were published, you could find "muggle" in a dictionary--it just didn't mean "a non-magical person" yet; it could mean "a fish tail," "a sweetheart," or "a marijuana joint."

"Pic" might annoy you. But as Internetty as it sounds, it's actually been around as a shortened version of "picture" since the year 1884.


a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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