from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
REPUDIATION. In the civil law this term is used to signify the putting away
of a wife or a woman betrothed.
2. Properly divorce is used to point out the separation of married
persons; repudiation, to denote the separation either of married people, or
those who are only affianced. Divortium est repudium et separatio maritorum;
repodium est renunciatio sponsalium, vel etiam est divortium. Dig. 50, 16,
101, 1. Repudiation is also used to denote a determination to have nothing
to do with any particular thing; as, a repudiation of a legacy, is the
abandonment of such legacy, and a renunciation of all right to it.
3. In the canon law, repudiation is the refusal to accept a benefice
which has been conferred upon the party repudiating.