rescind
transitive verb; formal, especially legal or official

- Officially declare that a law, contract or decision no longer has legal force

- Withdraw a law or agreement and state that it is no longer valid

- Take back or cancel an offer, order or proposal

- Annul a contract and restore the parties, as far as possible, to their previous positions

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

English has used rescind since at least 1579. It came through Middle French rescinder and Latin rescindere, formed from re- (“back”) and scindere (“to cut, split or tear apart”). Its literal picture is therefore not of gently changing one’s mind, but of cutting something away.

Latin already used rescindere figuratively for cancelling or annulling. English retained that formal force, attaching the verb particularly to laws, contracts, orders, offers and decisions.

The same Latin cutting verb produced the rare English relatives exscind, meaning “cut off”, and prescind, meaning “separate” or “withdraw attention from”. Only rescind became widely established. The spelling can mislead, too: it is pronounced ri-SIND, with no separate sound for the c.

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THE TALENT FRANCE EXPORTED

In October 1685, one monarch closed a door and another soon opened one.

Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had given France’s Protestant Huguenots limited religious protection since 1598. Faced with forced conversion and persecution, many fled France despite restrictions on emigration.

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, responded with the Edict of Potsdam. It invited the refugees into territory still recovering from the Thirty Years’ War. The welcome was generous, but not purely charitable: Brandenburg needed inhabitants, skills and economic activity.

An estimated 20,000 Huguenots settled in Brandenburg-Prussia. By 1700, people of French origin made up roughly a quarter of Berlin’s population. The newcomers contributed substantially to the territory’s commercial, social and cultural development.

Louis wanted greater religious uniformity. Instead, his policy supplied a rival state with precisely the people it needed: experienced artisans, merchants and professionals who could rebuild workshops, businesses and communities.

Official decisions often look clean on paper. Their consequences travel through families, cities and generations, acquiring effects that no drafter intended.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

abrogate (formal), annul, cancel, countermand (an order), repeal (a law), RESCIND, revoke, withdraw

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“The council may RESCIND the rule before it takes effect.”

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