Wiktionary

abject

English

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WOTD – 10 April 2022

Etymology 1

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PIE word
*h₂epó

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English abiect, abject (adjective) [and other forms],[1] from Middle French abject (modern French abject, abjet (obsolete)), and from its etymon Latin abiectus (“abandoned; cast aside”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abiciō (“to discard, throw away”), from ab- (prefix meaning ‘away from’) + iaciō (“to throw”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)).[2][3]

The noun is derived from the adjective.[2]

cognates

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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abject (comparative abjecter or more abject, superlative abjectest or most abject)

  1. Existing in or sunk to a low condition, position, or state; contemptible, despicable, miserable. [from early 15th c.]
    Synonyms: degraded, (archaic) demiss, ignoble, mean, vile, wretched, worthless
    Antonym: unabject
  2. (by extension)
    1. (chiefly with a negative connotation) Complete; downright; utter.
      Synonyms: out-and-out, unmitigated; see also Thesaurus:total
      abject failure   abject nonsense   abject terror
    2. (rare) Lower than nearby areas; low-lying.
  3. Of a person: cast down in hope or spirit; showing utter helplessness, hopelessness, or resignation; also, grovelling; ingratiating; servile. [from mid 14th c.]
    Synonyms: beggarly, cringing, slavish
    Antonym: unabject
  4. (sociology, usually nominalized) Marginalized as deviant.
    • 2007, Sean Brayton, “MTV's Jackass: Transgression, Abjection and the Economy of White Masculinity”, in Journal of Gender Studies, volume 16, page 59:
      The abject can easily be grafted onto the immigrant body, which is often conceived as something to be excluded in order to preserve a coherent yet racist national imaginary.
    • 2009, W. C. Harris, Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 98:
      The disclosure of tolerance's hidden phobic lining fits in well with queer theory's embrace of the abject.
Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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abject (plural abjects)

  1. A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; an oppressed person; an outcast; also, such people as a class. [from early 16th c.]
    Synonyms: (rare) heanling, wretch
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Seconde Pistle off Paul the Apostle to the Corrinthyans vij:[6], folio ccxl, verso:
      Nevertheleſſe he thatt comfortith the abiecte⸝ comforted vs at the cõmynge of Titus.
    • c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
      VVe are the Queenes abiects and muſt obey.
    • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], column 1:
      For honour trauels in a ſtraight ſo narrovv, / VVhere one but goes a breaſt, keepe then the path: / […] if you giue vvay, / Or hedge aſide from the direct forth right; / Like to an entred Tyde, they all ruſh by, / And leaue you hindmoſt: / Or like a gallant Horſe falne in firſt ranke, / Lye there for pauement to the abiect, neere / Ore-run and trampled on: […]
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 35:15, column 1:
      But in mine aduerſitie they reioyced, and gathered themſelues together: yea, the abiects gathered themſelues together againſt me, & I knew it not, they did teare me, and ceaſed not, […]
    • [1633], George Herbert, “The Sacrifice”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 23:
      Servants and abjects flout me; they are wittie: / Now propheſie who ſtrikes thee, is their dittie. / So they in me denie themſelves all pitie: / Was ever grief, [like mine?]
    • 1818–1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, Act III, scene iv, page 118:
      [T]he subject of a tyrant's will / Became, worse fate, the abject of his own, / Which spurred him, like an outspent horse, to death.
    • 1830, Walter Scott, “Auchindrane; or, The Ayrshire Tragedy”, in The Doom of Devorgoil, a Melo-drama; Auchindrane; or, The Ayrshire Tragedy, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Cadell and Company; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 309:
      Hear ye the serf I bred, begin to reckon / Upon his rights and pleasure! Who am I— / Thou abject, who am I, whose will thou thwartest?
    • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], “The Third Heavens”, in Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC, page 414:
      Let us look then to the widely-severed ranks of an Asiatic empire.—There is first its wretched and vilified class, upon which the superincumbent structure of the social system presses so heavily as almost to crush existence; […] Shall these abjects—these victims—these outcasts, know any thing of pleasure?
    • 2024 May 17, Abigail Thorn, “I Read The Most Misunderstood Philosopher in the World” (36:02 from the start), in Philosophy Tube‎[3]:
      When the powers that be say a certain group of people are inherently dangerous, whether they're Muslims or Palestinians or trans people, that's them trying to use performative speech to make that group of people impossible to listen to. We become not subjects but abjects, a problem to be managed against our will in the name of a public good that does not recognize us as part of the public.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Late Middle English abjecten (“to cast out, expel”) [and other forms],[4] from abiect, abject (adjective) (see etymology 1).[5]

Sense 3 (“of a fungus: to give off (spores or sporidia)”) is modelled after German abschleudern (“to give off forcefully”).[5]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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abject (third-person singular simple present abjects, present participle abjecting, simple past and past participle abjected) (transitive, chiefly archaic)

  1. To cast off or out (someone or something); to reject, especially as contemptible or inferior. [from 15th c.]
    • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Elizabeth Queene of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 104, page 848, column 1:
      […] Dauid durſt not touch Saul, though he vvas abiected by God.
    • 2001, Le’a Kent, “Fighting Abjection: Representing Fat Women”, in Jana Evans Braziel, Kathleen LeBesco, editors, Bodies out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, part I (Revaluing Corpulence, Redefining Fat Subjectivities), page 141:
      Rather than abjecting her own fat body, the Ipecac-taking fat girl is abjecting diet culture.
  2. To cast down (someone or something); to abase; to debase; to degrade; to lower; also, to forcibly impose obedience or servitude upon (someone); to subjugate. [from 15th c.]
    • a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon IX. Preached on Candlemas Day.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 182:
      What phrases of abjecting themselves, in respect of the prince, can exceed David's humble expressing of himself to Saul?
  3. (mycology) Of a fungus: to (forcibly) give off (spores or sporidia).
Derived terms
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Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “abject, ppl.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “abject, adj. and n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021
  3. ^ “abject, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ “abjecten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Compare “abject, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021.

Further reading

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  • Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN), page 4
  • Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 3
  • Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abject”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 5.

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French abject, from Latin abiectus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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abject (comparative abjecter, superlative abjectst)

  1. reprehensible, despicable, abject
    Het is teleologisch, infaam en het is abject.
    It is teleological, scandalous and it is reprehensible.

Declension

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Declension of abject
uninflected abject
inflected abjecte
comparative abjecter
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial abject abjecter het abjectst
het abjectste
indefinite m./f. sing. abjecte abjectere abjectste
n. sing. abject abjecter abjectste
plural abjecte abjectere abjectste
definite abjecte abjectere abjectste
partitive abjects abjecters —

Derived terms

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French

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Etymology

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From Latin abiectus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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abject (feminine abjecte, masculine plural abjects, feminine plural abjectes)

  1. (literary) Worthy of utmost contempt or disgust; vile; despicable
  2. (literary, obsolete) of the lowest social position

Usage notes

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  • Abject lacks the idea of groveling, of moral degradation over time that is present in the English word.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → German: abjekt
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: abjekt
  • → Romanian: abject

Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French abject, from Latin abiectus.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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abject m or n (feminine singular abjectă, masculine plural abjecți, feminine and neuter plural abjecte)

  1. abject

Declension

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singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative-
accusative 		indefinite abject abjectă abjecți abjecte
definite abjectul abjecta abjecții abjectele
genitive-
dative 		indefinite abject abjecte abjecți abjecte
definite abjectului abjectei abjecților abjectelor
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