English
abnegator
Abnegator comes from Late Latin abnegator ‘a denier’, from Latin abnegō ‘refuse, deny, decline’, and ultimately from negō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnegō1‘deny’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEabnegō1‘refuse, deny, decline’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEabnegatus2‘refused, denied, declined, having been refused’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEabnegator2‘a denier’
- Englishearliest quotation 1605abnegator2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin abnegatus
- 2 Wiktionary, English abnegator
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1605, Edwin Sandys, A Relation of the State of Religion: “On the other side, representing a serpentine generation wholy,…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnegōWiktionary, Latin abnegatus‘deny’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEabnegōWiktionary, Latin abnegatus‘refuse, deny, decline’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEabnegatusWiktionary, English abnegator‘refused, denied, declined, having been refused’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEabnegatorWiktionary, English abnegator‘a denier’
- Englishearliest quotation 1605abnegatorWiktionary, English abnegator. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1605, Edwin Sandys, A Relation of the State of Religion: “On the other side, representing a serpentine generation wholy,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *né ‘not’
no, na, ne, necessity, 13 more
through Latin nec ‘nor’
through Latin negō ‘deny’
Today it means
noun One who abnegates, denies, or rejects.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “abnegator”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin abnegatus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin negō / abnegator