Resign

How to spell resign

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce resign

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resign mean?

1. verbTo formally give up a job, office, or position.
2. verbTo accept something undesirable as inevitable, usually with the reflexive 'oneself'.

Resign in a sentence

• She decided to resign from the board after the merger.

• She had to resign herself to a long commute after the office moved.

• The minister was forced to resign over the scandal.

• They began to resign themselves to the fact that the flight was cancelled.

Where does resign come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travelled into English from the Latin resignare, which literally meant 'to unseal' or 'to cancel', built from the prefix re- ('back') and signare ('to mark, sign, or seal'), itself from signum, a 'mark' or 'sign'. In Roman usage resignare carried the idea of breaking a seal and so giving something back or annulling it, and from that grew the sense of formally handing over an office or surrendering a claim. English took it through Old French resigner in the late 1300s, originally in the context of giving up a benefice or position. The silent g survives because the spelling preserves the sign root, the very same element seen in signature, design, and signal, even though English no longer pronounces it here. That hidden, unsounded g is exactly the spelling trap, since the ear hears only 'rezine'.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• sign (from Latin signare: to mark or seal)