abortion
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: əʹbôrshən
ipa: /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən
Forms: form: abortions
Etymology: From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort + -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”).
Senses: examples: text: Swines-bread, so used, doth not onely speed / A tardy labour; but (without great heed) / If over it a Child-great Woman stride, / Instant abortion often doth betide.
ref: 1605 [1578], Josuah, transl. Sylvester, “The Third Day of the First Week”, in Devine Weekes and Workes, translation of La Premiere Sepmaine by Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, lines 693–696:
text: 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.
ref: 1809, William Nicholson, The British Encyclopaedia, volume IV:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.
A spontaneous abortion; a miscarriage.
qualifier: now uncommon in general use
examples: text: Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.
text: It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months.
ref: 1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 93:
text: The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China. Her young parents, who worked in a pottery factory in Rongchang in present-day Chongqing municipality, conceived her while unmarried. “They were told by the factory, ‘Have an abortion or be fired’,” she said. They chose to keep her and were fired.
ref: 2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2023, Sinosphere:
text: 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.
ref: 2017 October 5, Ben Jacobs, The Guardian:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.
An induced abortion.
examples: text: ‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’
ref: 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 657:
text: 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.
ref: 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own:
glosses: An aborted foetus; an abortus.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1846, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Pictures from Italy:
text: His voice was the most pitiable abortion of a voice I had ever heard.
ref: 1889, Edward Bellamy, “To Whom This May Come”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, New York, page 459, column 2:
text: Dickey on his own manages to turn a simple bo diddley 1-2-3-4 into an absolute abortion of a song.
ref: 2000, Jules, “please dont buy beacon cd”, in alt.fan.allman-brothers (Usenet):
text: an absolute abortion of a book
ref: 2003, David Kerekes, Headpress 24: Powered by Love, page 133:
glosses: A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1800 September 23, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush^(http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(tj090069))):
text: 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.
ref: 2013, Fakhry A. Assaad, James W. LaMoreaux, Travis Hughes, Field Methods for Geologists and Hydrogeologists, →ISBN, page 314:
text: […] the abrupt abortion of the trip after eleven days.
ref: 2015, Gabriele Brandstetter, Poetics of Dance: Body, Image, and Space, →ISBN, page 73:
glosses: Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.
glosses: The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.
Synonyms: word: abort
word: abortus
sense: induced abortion
word: aborticide
sense: induced abortion
word: feticide
sense: induced abortion
word: foeticide
sense: induced abortion
english: of pregnancy
translation: of pregnancy
word: termination
sense: act of terminating pregnancy
word: aborticide
sense: act of terminating pregnancy
word: embryoctony
sense: act of terminating pregnancy
word: feticide
sense: act of terminating pregnancy
word: foeticide
sense: act of terminating pregnancy
english: of pregnancy
translation: of pregnancy
word: termination
sense: spontaneous abortion
word: miscarriage
sense: spontaneous abortion
word: misbirth
Hyponyms: accidental abortion
ampullar abortion
artificial abortion
back alley abortion
back-alley abortion
chemical abortion
complete abortion
contagious abortion
early abortion
elective abortion
habitual abortion
hysterotomy abortion
imminent abortion
incomplete abortion
induced abortion
inevitable abortion
infected abortion
infectious abortion
instillation abortion
late-term abortion
lunchtime abortion
medical abortion
nontherapeutic abortion
overdue abortion
partial-birth abortion
partial birth abortion
prolonged abortion
septic abortion
spontaneous abortion
surgical abortion
therapeutic abortion
threatened abortion
tubal abortion
vacuum aspiration abortion
Derived terms: abortifacient
abortional
abortion ban
abortion clinic
abortion doctor
abortionee
abortionism
abortionist
abortion mill
abortion pill
abortion rights
abortion-rights
abortion tour
abortion tourism
abortion tourist
abortion vaccine
anti-abortion
antiabortion
anti-abortionism
antiabortionism
anti-abortionist
antiabortionist
miniabortion
missed abortion
post-abortion
postabortion
pre-abortion
preabortion
pro-abortion
proabortion
teleabortion