# abstraction
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English abstraccyone; either from Middle French abstraction or from Medieval Latin abstrāctiō (“separation”), from Latin abstrahō (“draw away”). Equivalent to abstract +‎ -ion.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /əbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
* (US) IPA: /æbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/, /əbˈstɹæk.ʃn̩/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

abstraction (countable and uncountable, plural abstractions)
* The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
    Coordinate term: extraction
** 1848, J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy:The cancelling of the debt would be no destruction of wealth, but a transfer of it: a wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community, for the profit of the government, or of the tax-payers.
** (euphemistic) The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
** (engineering) Removal of water from a river, lake, or aquifer.
* A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
    a hermit’s abstraction
* The act of focusing on one characteristic of an object rather than the object as a whole group of characteristics; the act of separating said qualities from the object or ideas. [First attested in the late 16th century.]
    Holonym: induction
** c. 1837, W. Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, published 1860, Lecture XXXV, page 474:Abstraction is no positive act: it is simply the negative of attention.
    Abstraction is necessary for the classification of things into genera and species.
* Any characteristic of an individual object when that characteristic has been separated from the object and is contemplated alone as a quality having independent existence.
* A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.
* The act of comparing commonality between distinct objects and organizing using those similarities; the act of generalizing characteristics; the product of said generalization. [First attested in the late 16th century.]
* An idea or notion of an abstract or theoretical nature. [First attested in the late 16th century.]
    to fight for mere abstractions
* Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects; preoccupation. [First attested in the late 18th century.]
** 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 55:"One penny, sir!" He was roused at once from his abstraction; for it was a question to himself whether he had even that in his pocket. Sixpence was, however, discovered; he paid the toll, and passed on.
* (art) An abstract creation, or piece of art; qualities of artwork that are free from representational aspects. [First attested in the early 20th century.]
* (chemistry) A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation.
* An idea of an idealistic, unrealistic or visionary nature.
* The result of mentally abstracting an idea; the product of any mental process involving a synthesis of: separation, despecification, generalization, and ideation in any of a number of combinations.
* (geology) The merging of two river valleys by the larger of the two deepening and widening so much so, as to assimilate the smaller.
* (computing) Hiding implementation details from the interface of a component, to decrease complexity through interdependency and improve modularity; a construct that serves as such.
    Files are an abstraction provided by the file system for storing data, so that applications do not have to care how that data is stored.

#### Synonyms

* (the act of generalization): universalization; see also Thesaurus:generalization

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “the act of generalization”): specialization; see also Thesaurus:specialization
* (antonym(s) of “mentally abstracting”): concretization

#### Derived terms

* abstractional
* abstractionism
* abstractionist
* abstractionistic
* abstractive
* eccentric abstraction
* lambda abstraction
* leaky abstraction
* semiabstraction

#### Related terms

* abstract

#### Translations

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

### References

* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abstraction”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 10.
* ↑ Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 5

### Further reading

* “abstraction”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “abstraction”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “abstraction”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* Glossary of Water Terms, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin abstrāctiōnem.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ap.stʁak.sjɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)
* Homophone: abstractions

### Noun

abstraction f (plural abstractions)
* abstraction

#### Derived terms

* faire abstraction

#### Related terms

* abstraire
* abstrait

#### Descendants

* → Romanian: abstracție
* → Russian: абстракция (abstrakcija)

### Further reading

* “abstraction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.