What is the origin of the phrase "to give up"

Question

How did "give up" start to mean to quit?

Answer 1

"Give up" is almost a word-for-word translation of surrender (sur = over/above/up + render = to give, present), so it seems to be an Anglosaxon version of a French/Latin word. It has been used for much longer 400 years but was probably popularised through its use in the King James Bible:

30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

John 19:30 King James Version (KJV)

Answer 2

In French, we have the word: "se rendre" = to render itself. Implicitly, it is "to render itself to the winner". To let him/her decide about your future. It is close to the meaning "to abandon" if you think that for many religions your daily life is controlled by destiny (to render itself to destiny is likely a very used concept in old books) and other similar concepts.

I suspect that with the tradition of hiding the reflection in English, "se rendre" turned into "to render/give" and the particle "up" was necessary to explicit a specific meaning, as do all phrasal verbs.

Note also that "surrender" is likely to be the pronunciation of "se rendre" by an English teller. Coincidence or I think not.

Answer 3

Give up is also word to word equivelant of German aufgeben (auf = up, geben = give).

My guess is that in old times, people who didn't make any more active actions in pursuit of their interest, gave the matter up to the deity up above in the sky (i.e. god).

With time the original meaning of giving it to someone/something else was forgotten, and it came to mean only the part of stop actively trying to do something by yourself.

Answer 4

Google dredged up this great answer, buried in this Reddit comment to the question "ELI5: Why is the word "up" used so often in seemingly inappropriate ways? How can I "give up" or "fill up"?"

The 'up' in 'give up' is absolutely metaphorical! Without realizing it, you even acknowledge this later in your post:

"Give up your freedom," or gun, or virginity, or whatever is being held by the person of lower position (power/social standing/ legal standing/ etc.)

In none of those examples, except perhaps virginity among unadventurous couples, is one party literally 'above' the other. The metaphor at play is 'more power = higher in literal, above-sea-level altitude.'

Then read this same deleted user's next comment, in the chain.

Yes, again, hierarchic language often represents social station with 'height' and 'lowness,' but first, this is inherently a metaphor -- the article you link to doesn't address this at all -- and second, even in English this isn't always the case. A boss is sometimes called a 'big boss,' for instance, and never a 'high boss.' People everywhere still understand themselves within a social hierarchy of some sort, but this doesn't mean they understand their social superiors to be physically, literally above them. Instead of saying 'he is more important than I,' we often say something to the effect of 'He is above me.' This is precisely what a metaphor is -- using the language of space to describe a parallel abstract concept, in this case relative status.

To address the article on metaphor you link to, it states that:

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object.

The subject here is status within a hierarchy, and the otherwise unrelated object is altitude.

See this article dated December 5 2007. Just edit this post, if you find more posts on Reddit that asked this question.

1. Why do you think "giving" is part of the etymology in forgive?

2. Pardon is an "etymological synonym" of forgive.