give up

[Tenos]

When Charles Darwin sent the manuscript of the Origin of Species to be reviewed for style before sending it to the press, he was shocked by the heavy corrections made to it. He expressed this in a letter to Hooker, saying that someone like him would have written a great book if he had had his materials:

But I will never give up that a better man could have made a splendid book out of the materials.

It seems that "give up" used to have another meaning beside quitting and surrendering back then; but what did it mean?

 

[lingobingo]

I don‘t think it has a different meaning. If anything, the word used unusually is that, which seems to be meant as “simply because”.

 

[Tenos]

I don‘t think it has a different meaning. If anything, the word used unusually is that, which seems to be meant as “simply because”.

Actually, he was rather criticizing himself. He did say in a former letter, that Hooker could have made a great book with the materials he had.

 

[lingobingo]

Yes, I know. And that doesn’t conflict with what I said.

 

[Steven David]

When Charles Darwin sent the manuscript of the Origin of Species to be reviewed for style before sending it to the press, he was shocked by the heavy corrections made to it. He expressed this in a letter to Hooker, saying that someone like him would have written a great book if he had had his materials:

But I will never give up that a better man could have made a splendid book out of the materials.

It seems that "give up" used to have another meaning beside quitting and surrendering back then; but what did it mean?

He will never agree to that. He will never surrender to that idea.

Here are two ways that we usually understand the phrase "give up".

give up - quit or stop doing something

give up - concede to the opposition

He will never give up his belief. He will not stop believing that this is so.

He will never concede to the idea that what he says is false.

Yes, you are correct to say that this usage of "give up" is not what we would normally expect in contemporary usage.