English edit

Etymology edit

From Latin praetermitto.

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /pɹiːtəˈmɪt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌpɹidəɹˈmɪt/
  • (file)

Verb edit

pretermit (third-person singular simple present pretermits, present participle pretermitting, simple past and past participle pretermitted)

  1. (transitive) To intentionally disregard (something), to ignore; to neglect or omit. [from 15th c.]
    • a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon LXXXII. Preached at a Marriage.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., [], volume IV, London: John W[illiam] Parker, [], published 1839, →OCLC, page 20:
      [F]or the public, for the redemption of the whole world, God hath (shall we say, pretermitted?) derelicted, forsaken, abandoned, his own, and only Son.
    • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, chapter XXI, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: [] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, [], →OCLC:
      The liberty of a subject lieth, therefore, only in those things which, in regulating their actions, the sovereign hath praetermitted (such as is the liberty to buy, and sell, and otherwise contract with one another; to choose their own abode, their own diet, their own trade of life, and institute their children as they themselves think fit; and the like).
    • c. 1598, Francis Bacon, An Account of [] Compositions for Alienations:
      The fees, or allowances, that are termly given to these deputies, receiver, and clerks, for recompence of these their pains, I do purposely pretermit; because they be not certain, but arbitrary.
    • 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XX, in Middlemarch [], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II:
      [V]arious subjects for annotation have presented themselves which, though I have no direct need of them, I could not pretermit.

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