abortive

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

First attested in 1382, with the meaning "causing stillbirth or miscarriage". From Middle English, from Old French abortif,[1] from Latin abortīvus (“causing abortion”), from aborior (“miscarry, disappear”), from ab (“amiss”) + orior (“appear, be born, arise”).[2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

abortive (comparative more abortive, superlative most abortive)

  1. (obsolete) Produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural. [c. 1400–mid 1700s][1]
    an abortive child
  2. Coming to nothing; failing in its effect. [from late 1500s].[1]
    Synonyms: miscarrying, fruitless, unsuccessful, useless
    an abortive attempt
  3. (biology) Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile. [from mid 1700s][1]
    an abortive organ
    an abortive stamen
    an abortive ovule
  4. (medicine, pharmacology, rare) Causing abortion; abortifacient.
    • 1809, Bartholomew Parr, Medical Dictionary:
      abortive medicines
    • 2018 May, Carla Sebastiania, Ludovica Curcioa, Marcella Ciulloa, Deborah Crucianib, Silvia Crottib, Cristina Pescab, Martina Torricellia, Martina Sebastianellia, Andrea Felicic, Massimo Biagetti, “A multi-screening Fast qPCR approach to the identification of abortive agents in ruminants”, in Journal of Microbiological Methods, volume 148, →DOI, page 12:
      Each country may have a different prevalence of infectious abortive agents. The most common agents of abortion in cattle are Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Chlamydiaceae, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira spp., […]
  5. (medicine) Cutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
    abortive treatment of typhoid fever
    • 2016 December, David C. Sheridan, Garth D. Meckler, “Inpatient Pediatric Migraine Treatment: Does Choice of Abortive Therapy Affect Length of Stay?”, in The Journal of Pediatrics, volume 179, →DOI, page 211:
      Even with prophylaxis, children often experience episodic breakthrough headaches that require abortive treatment. […] Abortive therapies in the ED include dopamine antagonists and anti-inflammatory agents.
  6. (medicine, of a disease) Having a short and mild progression, without pronounced symptoms.
  7. Made from the skin of a still-born animal.
    abortive vellum

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

abortive (plural abortives)

  1. (obsolete) Someone or something born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion. [Attested from around (1150 to 1350) until the mid 18th century.][1]
  2. (obsolete) A fruitless effort. [Attested from the early 17th century until the early 18th century.][1]
  3. (obsolete) A medicine that causes abortion, an abortifacient.
  4. (obsolete) A medicine or treatment acting to halt or slow the progress of a disease.
    • 1897 August 7, E. Viko, “On the Treatment of Typhoid Fever”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 29, number 6, Chicago, Ill., →DOI, page 274:
      Naphthalin was praised by Rosbach as an abortive in typhoid fever; Kraemer in 1886, Wilcox in 1887, Sehwald in 1889 and Wolff of Philadelphia in 1891 confirmed Rosbach's observations.

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

abortive (third-person singular simple present abortives, present participle abortiving, simple past and past participle abortived)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To cause an abortion; to render without fruit. [Attested only in the 17th century.][1]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abortive”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 7.
  2. ^ Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 4

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

abortive

  1. feminine singular of abortif

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

abortive

  1. inflection of abortiv:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /a.borˈti.ve/
  • Rhymes: -ive
  • Hyphenation: a‧bor‧tì‧ve

Adjective[edit]

abortive

  1. feminine plural of abortivo

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

abortīve

  1. vocative masculine singular of abortīvus

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

abortive

  1. definite singular of abortiv
  2. plural of abortiv
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