14世纪晚期，“绝对放弃（某物），放弃控制，完全交出；”也用于反身，“投降（自己），完全屈服（于宗教、淫乱等）”，源自古法语 abandonner “投降，释放；自由给予，允许”，也用于反身，“献身（自己）”（12世纪）。
古法语词由副词短语 à bandon “随意，任意”构成，来自 à “在，向”（来自拉丁语 ad；参见 ad-）+ bandon “权力，管辖权”，来自拉丁语 bannum，“公告”，源自法兰克语或其他日耳曼语词，来自原始日耳曼语 *bannan- “宣布，召唤，宣布为非法”（这些都是通过公告完成的）；参见 ban (v.)。
Mettre sa forest à bandon was a feudal law phrase in the 13th cent. = mettre sa forêt à permission, i.e. to open it freely to any one for pasture or to cut wood in; hence the later sense of giving up one's rights for a time, letting go, leaving, abandoning. [Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
Mettre sa forest à bandon 是13世纪的封建法律短语 = mettre sa forêt à permission，即自由开放给任何人放牧或砍伐木材；因此后来有了暂时放弃权利、放手、离开、抛弃的意义。[Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
“离开，抛弃，遗弃（需要帮助的人或物）”的意义始于15世纪晚期。相关词： Abandoned; abandoning。
词源上，这个词带有“将（某物）置于他人控制之下”的意思，英语中最早出现这个词的是作为副词（13世纪中期），意为“在（某人）控制之下”，因此也有“不受限制”的意思。
Again, as that which is placed at the absolute command of one party must by the same act be entirely given up by the original possessor, it was an easy step from the sense of conferring the command of a thing upon some particular person to that of renouncing all claim to authority over the subject matter, without particular reference to the party into whose hands it might come ; and thus in modern times the word has come to be used almost exclusively in the sense renunciation or desertion. [Hensleigh Wedgwood, "A Dictionary of English Etymology," 1859]
再次，由于被置于一方绝对指挥之下的事物，必须通过同一行为完全由原拥有者放弃，因此从将事物的指挥权授予某特定人的意义到放弃对该主题的所有权利的意义，是一个简单的步骤，而不特别参考它可能落入谁手中；因此在现代，这个词几乎专门用于放弃或遗弃的意义。[Hensleigh Wedgwood, "A Dictionary of English Etymology," 1859]
