A Dictionary of the English Language/abandon

To ABA’NDON. v. a. [Fr. abandonner. Derived, according to Menage, from the Italian abandonare, which signifies to forsake his colours; bandum [vexillum] deserere. Pasquier thinks it a coalition of a ban donner, to give up to a proscription; in which sense we, at this day, mention the ban of the empire. Ban, in our own old dialect, signifies a curse; and to abandon, if considered as compounded between French and Saxon, is exactly equivalent to diris divovere.]