29 January 2013

abjure

[ab-joor, -jur]

verb (used with object), ab·jured, ab·jur·ing.

1. to renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant: to abjure one’s errors.
2. to renounce or give up under oath; forswear: to abjure allegiance.
3. to avoid or shun.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin abjūrāre to deny on oath, equivalent to ab- ab- + jūrāre to swear; see jury

Related forms
ab·jur·a·to·ry, adjective
ab·jur·er, noun
non·ab·jur·a·to·ry, adjective
un·ab·jur·a·to·ry, adjective
un·ab·jured, adjective

Today’s aphorism

‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way’.

– E. L. Doctorow

On this day

29 January 1979 – 16 year old, Brenda Spencer shoots two men dead and wounds nine children at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. She allegedly claimed that she did it because it was a Monday and she didn’t like Mondays. She was sentenced to 25 years jail. The Boomtown Rats released a song about the incident, entitled ‘I Don’t Like Mondays‘.