How to Meow in Yiddish: One Of Those Words

Monday, January 15, 2024

One Of Those Words

Forsake

Psalm 27:10
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
forsake (v.)
Old English forsacan "object to, oppose, refuse, deny; give up, renounce" (past tense forsoc, past participle forsacen), from for- "completely" + sacan "to struggle, dispute, wrangle; accuse, blame" (see sake (n.1)). Related: Forsaking. Similar formation in Old Saxon farsakan, Dutch verzaken, Old High German farsahhan "deny, repudiate," Danish forsage "give up, refuse."

Forsake is chiefly applied to leaving that by which natural affection or a sense of duty should or might have led us to remain: as, to forsake one's home, friends, country, or cause; a bird forsakes its nest. In the passive it often means left desolate, forlorn. [Century Dictionary]

A couple of synonyms: abandon, desert, relinquish.

I got to thinking about the word a few days ago. It was one of those words that I have used. Everybody does. I wasn’t sure if I knew the accepted formal meaning of it.
Sometimes it seems clear to me that there is a historical structure to a word, and then there is the way it is used commonly. In this case the meaning is pretty close to how it is used all the time. No wordy mystery here.
It isn’t a nice word, is it? It is unkind. It refers to a turning away from that which we would naturally cling to. In like case as abandon, it means to drop and leave what went before.
It might also mean to give what is being forsaken up to another, to relinquish it. To give up your rights to it. Perhaps one could say, to make a silly example, “sure, that’s my hat but since you like it so much you can have it.” I will have forsaken my hat.
Desert seems like to escape a danger maybe. To forsake the battle, or some difficult situation.

But to return to the 27th Psalm. It seems to be saying in expansive Hebraic poetry style, that the Lord Himself, Adonai, will never abandon, desert, relinquish or forsake us. We just have to keep on keeping on and pay attention to Him.