Hacker News Reader

Comment by abuani | Hacker News Reader

Which doesn't abdicate responsibility from the CTO of the company to have practices in place that could have prevented this. While I'm going to hold my breath on being threatened with legal claims, to be fired for something that any person in the building could have done doesn't sound like a conducive environment to work in.

View on HN

absolve not abdicate. you abdicate a throne, you are absolved of responsibility

I think people are trying to say abrogate. I've seen this usage a few times lately.

That connotes a degree of misfeasance, though - to say one has abrogated a responsibility is to say he has failed to uphold it, where the sense intended here is more one of absolution or relief.

You also abdicate responsibilities; ie you leave them, as a king leaves a throne. You can abdicate a philosophical position, just means you reject it.

Eg https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/abdicate

Nonetheless, "X doesn't abdicate responsibility from the CTO.." doesn't work - it would be the CTO that's abdicating his own responsibility.

People don't always language well.

Abdicate is correct here. It also means "to cast off", although that meaning is seldom used anywhere other than the phrase "abdicating responsibility".

Edit: not sure why I'm being down voted. I am correct: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abdicate

"The CTO abdicated his responsibility" would be okay, but "This doesn't abdicate the CTO of his responsibility" doesn't work.

Correct, regarding his usage as a synonym for excuse, forgive or mitigate.

However, you can abdigate a responsibility. One can say for example that the CTO abdigated his responsibility to ensure the production database was protected and backed up.

I didn't look at comments until today, I love that the primary thread I spawned was the semantic differences between absolve and abdicate. I appreciate the criticism, I learned quite a bit about the differences :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com