Waive

How to spell waive

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce waive

What does waive mean?

1. verbTo voluntarily give up or refrain from enforcing a right, claim, fee, or rule.

Waive in a sentence

• The bank agreed to waive the late payment charge this once.

• The defendant chose to waive his right to a jury trial.

Where does waive come from?

Language of origin: French

Waive entered English in the early 1300s from Anglo-Norman legal French weyver, meaning 'to abandon' or 'to give up a claim'. That verb was built on the noun waif, which described ownerless or abandoned property, such as goods left behind by a fleeing thief; a person without a home was later called a waif for the same reason. The deeper root is probably the Old Norse veifa, 'to swing or wave about', the same source that gives us the everyday word 'wave', which is exactly why the two are now confused in writing. From its origins in property law the sense narrowed to the modern legal meaning: to choose not to enforce a right, fee, or rule that you would otherwise be entitled to. The spelling keeps the medieval -ai- and the silent final -e, a clue to its French legal pedigree rather than the Germanic 'wave' of the sea.

How the word is built

• waive (a single root from Anglo-Norman weyver: to abandon or relinquish; no prefix or suffix)

Words that sound like waive

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• wave: A moving ridge or swell on the surface of water, or a similar travelling disturbance of energy.