abstract

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See also: Abstract

English

Etymology

From Middle English abstract, borrowed from Latin abstractus, perfect passive participle of abstrahō (“draw away”), formed from abs- (“away”) + trahō (“to pull, draw”). The verbal sense is first attested in 1542.

Pronunciation

  • Noun:
  • Adjective:
    • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈæbˌstɹækt/
    • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˌæbˈstɹækt/, /əbˈstɹækt/, /ˈæbˌstɹækt/
  • Verb:
    • IPA(key): /ˌæbˈstɹækt/, /əbˈstɹækt/

Noun

abstract (plural abstracts)

  1. An abridgement or summary of a longer publication. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote by Isaac Watts and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      An abstract of every treatise he had read.
  2. Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items. [First attested in the mid 16th century.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote by Ford and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled.
    1. Concentrated essence of a product.
    2. (medicine) A powdered solid extract of a medicinal substance mixed with lactose.[2]
  3. An abstraction; an abstract term; that which is abstract. [First attested in the mid 16th century.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote by John Stuart Mill and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      The concretes "father" and "son" have, or might have, the abstracts "paternity" and "filiety".
  4. The theoretical way of looking at things; something that exists only in idealized form. [First attested in the early 17th century.][1]
  5. (art) An abstract work of art. [First attested in the early 20th century.]
  6. (real estate) A summary title of the key points detailing a tract of land, for ownership; abstract of title.

Usage notes

  • (theoretical way of looking at things): Preceded, typically, by the.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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

Adjective

abstract (comparative more abstract or abstracter, superlative most abstract or abstractest)[3]

  1. (obsolete) Derived; extracted. [Attested from around 1350 to 1470 until the late 15th century.][1]
  2. (now rare) Drawn away; removed from; apart from; separate. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
    • 17th century, John Norris (philosopher), The Oxford Dictionary:
      The more abstract we are from the body ... the more fit we shall be to behold divine light.
  3. Expressing a property or attribute separately of an object that is considered to be inherent to that object. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
  4. Considered apart from any application to a particular object; not concrete; ideal; non-specific; general, as opposed to specific. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
    • 1843, John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Volume 1, page 34,
      A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing. […] A practice, however, has grown up in more modern times, which, if not introduced by Locke, has gained currency from his example, of applying the expression "abstract name" to all names which are the result of abstraction and generalization, and consequently to all general names, instead of confining it to the names of attributes.
    Antonym: concrete
  5. Difficult to understand; abstruse; hard to conceptualize. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
    Synonym: abstruse
  6. (archaic) Absent-minded. [First attested in the early 16th century.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      abstract, as in a trance
    • 1922, D. H. Lawrence, Aaron's Rod:
      White and abstract-looking, he sat and ate his dinner.
  7. (art) Pertaining to the formal aspect of art, such as the lines, colors, shapes, and the relationships among them. [First attested in the mid 19th century.][1]
    1. (art, often capitalized) Free from representational qualities, in particular the non-representational styles of the 20th century. [First attested in the mid 19th century.][1]
    2. (music) Absolute.
    3. (dance) Lacking a story.
  8. Insufficiently factual.[3]
    Synonym: formal
  9. Apart from practice or reality; vague; theoretical; impersonal; not applied.
    • 1999, Nicholas Walker, “The Reorientation of Critical Theory: Habermas”, in Simon Glemdinning, editor, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Continental Philosophy‎[2], Routledge, →ISBN, page 489:
      During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, this commitment brought him into frequent critical confrontation with entrenched forms of conservative thinking (in academic areas from history and social science to the more abstract domains of ethical and political philosophy), […]
    Synonyms: conceptual, theoretical
    Antonyms: applied, practical
  10. (grammar) As a noun, denoting an intangible as opposed to an object, place, or person.
  11. (computing) Of a class in object-oriented programming, being a partial basis for subclasses rather than a complete template for objects.

Derived terms

Translations

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

See also

Verb

abstract (third-person singular simple present abstracts, present participle abstracting, simple past and past participle abstracted)

  1. (transitive) To separate; to disengage. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote by Walter Scott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices.
  2. (transitive) To remove; to take away; withdraw. [First attested in the late 15th century.][1]
    • 1834, Harriet Martineau, Illustration of Political Economy, volume IX:
      The lightning of the public burdens, which at present abstract a large proportion of profits and wages.
    • (Can we date this quote by Sir Walter Scott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices.
  3. (transitive, euphemistic) To steal; to take away; to remove without permission. [First attested in the late 15th century.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote by W. Black and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)}
      Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins from the harness.
    • 1869, Bholanauth Chunder, The Travels of a Hindoo to Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India:
      The inlaid characters in diamond, and other precious stones, have been all abstracted away by the pelf-loving Jaut and Mahratta—leaving the walls defaced with the hollow marks of the chisel.
  4. (transitive) To summarize; to abridge; to epitomize. [First attested in the late 16th century.][1]
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Franklin to this entry?)
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To extract by means of distillation. [Attested from the early 17th century until the early 18th century.][1]
    • Lua error in Module:quote at line 2602: |2= is an alias of |year=; cannot specify a value for both
  6. (transitive) To consider abstractly; to contemplate separately or by itself; to consider theoretically; to look at as a general quality. [First attested in the early 17th century.][1]
  7. (intransitive, reflexive, literally, figuratively) To withdraw oneself; to retire. [First attested in the mid 17th century.][1]
  8. (transitive) To draw off (interest or attention).
    • (Can we date this quote?), William Blackwood, Blackwood's Magazine
      The young stranger had been abstracted and silent.
    He was wholly abstracted by other objects.
  9. (intransitive, rare) To perform the process of abstraction.
    • (Can we date this quote by George Berkeley and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      I own myself able to abstract in one sense.
  10. (intransitive, fine arts) To create abstractions.
  11. (intransitive, computing) To produce an abstraction, usually by refactoring existing code. Generally used with "out".
    He abstracted out the square root function.

Usage notes

  • (to separate or disengage): Followed by the word from.
  • (to withdraw oneself): Followed by the word from.
  • (to summarize): Pronounced predominantly as /ˈæbˌstrækt/.
  • All other senses are pronounced as /æbˈstrækt/.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abstract”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 10.
  2. ^ Thomas, Clayton L., editor (1940), Taber's Encyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 5th edition, Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company, published 1993, →ISBN, page 14
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN), page 8

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl
Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French abstract, from Latin abstractus; cf. English abstract.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɑpˈstrɑkt/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: ab‧stract
  • Rhymes: -ɑkt

Adjective

abstract (comparative abstracter, superlative abstractst)

  1. abstract
  2. (art) abstract
    Antonym: figuratief

Inflection

Declension of abstract
uninflected abstract
inflected abstracte
comparative abstracter
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial abstract abstracter het abstractst
het abstractste
indefinite m./f. sing. abstracte abstractere abstractste
n. sing. abstract abstracter abstractste
plural abstracte abstractere abstractste
definite abstracte abstractere abstractste
partitive abstracts abstracters —

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: abstrak
  • → Indonesian: abstrak

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin abstractus, from abstrahō.

Pronunciation

Adjective

abstract (Late Middle English, rare)

  1. Drawn away or out of; detached:
    1. Excerpted; quoted from another text.
    2. Out of one's mind or detached from reality; temporarily insane.
    3. Having been (pulled or moved) above the ground.
    4. Barely comprehensible; hard to read.
    5. (grammar) Abstract (of a noun).

Descendants

References

Noun

abstract

  1. (Late Middle English, rare) abstract, synopsis

Descendants

References

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin abstractus, German Abstrakt.

Pronunciation

Adjective

abstract m or n (feminine singular abstractă, masculine plural abstracți, feminine and neuter plural abstracte)

  1. abstract

Declension

Declension of abstract
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite abstract abstractă abstracți abstracte
definite abstractul abstracta abstracții abstractele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite abstract abstracte abstracți abstracte
definite abstractului abstractei abstracților abstractelor

Antonyms

Related terms

Template:rel-mid

References

  1. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], 2016 January 23 (last accessed), archived from the original on 4 March 2016

Scots

Pronunciation

Noun

abstract (plural abstracts)

  1. abstract

Adjective

abstract (comparative mair abstract, superlative maist abstract)

  1. abstract

Verb

abstract (third-person singular simple present abstracts, present participle abstractin, simple past abstractt, past participle abstractt)

  1. abstract
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