abortion
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort + -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
abortion (countable and uncountable, plural abortions)
- (medicine) The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus; either naturally as a spontaneous abortion (now usually called a miscarriage), or deliberately as an induced abortion. [from 16th c.]
- Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.
- 1809, William Nicholson, The British Encyclopaedia, vol IV:
- At any time after impregnation, abortion may take place: it is one of the most common complaints of pregnancy, whence it is a matter of no small consequence that every practitioner should well understand it.
- 1997, Carlin, George, Brain Droppings[1], New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, LCCN 96-52373, OCLC 36084460, OL 26335012M, page 93:
- It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months.
- 2017, Ben Jacobs, The Guardian, 5 October:
- Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania will resign from Congress after claims that the anti-abortion Republican had urged a woman he was having an extramarital affair with to have an abortion.
- (now rare) An aborted foetus; an abortus. [from 16th c.]
- 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford 2008, p. 657:
- ‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’
- 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own:
- The Fascist poem, one may fear, will be a horrid little abortion such as one sees in a glass jar in the museum of some county town.
- 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford 2008, p. 657:
- (figuratively) A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity. [from 16th c.]
- 1846, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Pictures from Italy[2]:
- Insomuch that I do honestly believe, there can be no place in the world, where such intolerable abortions, begotten of the sculptor’s chisel, are to be found in such profusion, as in Rome.
- 2000, Jules, “please dont buy beacon cd”, in alt.fan.allman-brothers, Usenet:
- Dickey on his own manages to turn a simple bo diddley 1-2-3-4 into an absolute abortion of a song.
- 2003, David Kerekes, Headpress 24: Powered by Love, page 133:
- an absolute abortion of a book
- (figuratively) Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc. [from 17th c.]
- 1800 September 23, Jefferson, Thomas, Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush[3]:
- The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.
- 2013, Fakhry A. Assaad, James W. LaMoreaux, Travis Hughes, Field Methods for Geologists and Hydrogeologists, →ISBN, page 314:
- The transfer or loss of the project manager before the project is completed will result in lost continuity and delay or the abortion of the project and/or the report.
- 2015, Gabriele Brandstetter, Poetics of Dance: Body, Image, and Space, →ISBN, page 73:
- […] the abrupt abortion of the trip after eleven days.
- (biology) Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed. [from 18th c.]
- The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.
Synonyms[edit]
- abort (obsolete), abortus
- (induced abortion): aborticide, feticide, foeticide, termination (of pregnancy)
- (act of terminating pregnancy): aborticide, embryoctony, feticide, foeticide, termination (of pregnancy)
- (spontaneous abortion): miscarriage, misbirth
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from abortion
- abortionist
- abortion ban
- abortion clinic
- abortion pill
- abortion rights, abortion-rights
- anti-abortion, antiabortion
- anti-abortionism, anti-abortionism
- anti-abortionist, antiabortionist
- back alley abortion, back-alley abortion
- contagious abortion
Translations[edit]
miscarriage — See also translations at miscarriage
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induced abortion
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act of inducing abortion
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the foetus produced by abortion
biology: arrest of development of an organ
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fruit/produce that doesn't come to maturity
the act of aborting a project, etc
something ugly
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₃er-
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English words suffixed with -ion
- English terms with audio links
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)ʃən
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)ʃən/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Medicine
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with rare senses
- en:Biology
- en:Abortion