Trending: ‘rescind’

Rescind was among our top lookups on July 14th, 2020, after the Trump administration agreed to remove its provision that international students would be required to leave the country in the event that their schools did not have in-person classes for the upcoming semester.

Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the pandemic.
— Collin Binkley, Associated Press (apnews.com), 14 Jul. 2020

We define rescind in a number of ways, including “to take away,” “to cancel,” “to abrogate (a contract) and restore the parties to the positions they would have occupied had there been no contract,” and “to repeal.”

Rescind comes in part from the Latin scindere (meaning “to cut”), a root that it shares with a number of other, lesser-known words in English (such as abscind, exscind, and scissile). The word for a person who rescinds something is rescinder; an act of withdrawing is a rescindment, and something that is capable of being rescinded is called rescissible.

I leaue them here, entending once,
at large therein to stalck
And seuer places by themselues,
with styles and parting stakes:
And as I can, to my poore skill,
rescind the noysome brakes.
— Edward Hake, Newes out of Powles Churchyarde, 1579