Refusing to acknowledge someone as a family member or refusing to accept responsibility for something you previously claimed.
Present participle of disown. The verb disown combines dis- (reverse/undo) with own (to claim as yours), so it means 'to unclaim' something or someone.
Disowning appears frequently in Victorian literature because families used it as a social death sentence—you could be alive but legally 'not family' anymore!
Historically applied asymmetrically: fathers legally disowned daughters; mothers rarely had this power. Property law embedded male lineage authority.
Use without gender assumption; recognize that family rejection affects all genders equally.
["rejecting","renouncing kinship","formally severing family ties"]
Women were historically denied the legal right to disown; reclaiming equality in family autonomy is important.
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