/nɪˈɡlɛkt/
[verb] To fail to take care of something or someone, or to not give enough attention to a duty or responsibility. It can also be used as a noun to describe this failure of care or attention.
Neglect literally means 'to not pick up' — as if important things were lying on the ground and you simply walked past them.
The word neglect comes from the Latin verb neglegere, which meant 'to make light of', 'to disregard', or 'to leave undone'. This Latin word was built from two parts: the prefix nec or neg, meaning 'not', and legere, meaning 'to pick up', 'to gather', or 'to choose'. So at its very heart, neglect carries the image of something lying there, waiting to be picked up, and a person deliberately choosing not to reach for it.
The root legere is one of the most productive roots in the entire Latin language. It also meant 'to read' — because reading was understood as the careful gathering and selection of meaning from marks on a page. This same root gave English, through various paths, an extraordinary family of words. Latin legere → Old French lire → English 'lecture'; Latin eligere → Old French eslire → English 'elect'; Latin intellegere → Old French entendre → English 'intelligent'; and Latin diligere, meaning 'to choose carefully', → Old French diligence → English 'diligence'. All of these words share the idea of picking, selecting, or gathering with attention.
Neglegere passed into Classical Latin as a common word meaning to ignore or be careless about something. By the time of Roman writers such as Cicero, it was used in moral and social contexts — a Roman citizen could neglect his duties to the state, his family, or the gods. The word carried a sense of moral failure, not just absent-mindedness. The derived noun neglegentia, meaning carelessness or inattention, was equally common, and it is the direct ancestor of the English word 'negligence'.
English borrowed neglect directly from Latin neglegere in the early 16th century, during the Renaissance period when scholars and writers were bringing enormous numbers of Latin words into English. The word appeared first as a verb and quickly developed a noun form as well. Writers of the period used it in ways that echoed the Roman moral sense — to neglect one's children, one's health, or one's duties was not merely forgetful but wrong. This moral weight has stayed with the word ever since, which is why 'neglect' sounds considerably more serious than simply 'forgetting' or 'overlooking'.
Over the centuries, neglect settled into both everyday and legal language. In law, 'negligence' became a formal term for a failure of duty that causes harm to another person. In medicine, 'neglect' describes the failure to provide basic care. In everyday speech, it describes gardens that have gone wild, friendships that have faded, and promises left unkept. The word still carries that ancient image buried inside it — something of value, lying on the ground, waiting to be picked up, while someone walks past without a second glance.