abject
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: human-sciences
sciences
social-science
sociology
Etymology: PIE word
 *h₂epó
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English abiect, abject (adjective) [and other forms], from Middle French abject (modern French abject, abjet (obsolete)), and from its etymon Latin abiectus (“abandoned; cast aside”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abiciō (“to discard, throw away”), from ab- (prefix meaning ‘away from’) + iaciō (“to throw”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)).
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Cognates
* Italian abiecto (obsolete), abietto
* Late Latin abiectus (“humble or poor person”, noun)
* Spanish abjecto (obsolete), abyecto
Inflected forms:
form: abjecter
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more abject
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: abjectest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most abject
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: abjects
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Existing in or sunk to a low condition, position, or state; contemptible, despicable, miserable.
pos: adj
examples: These whelpes of the first lytter of gentilitie, these exhalations, drawen vp to the heauen of honour from the dunghill of abiect fortune, haue long been on horsebacke to come riding to your diuellship; but, I know not how, lyke Saint George, they are alwaies mounted but neuer moue.
VVhen as thoſe fallovv Deere, and huge-hancht Stags that graz'd / Vpon her ſhaggy Heaths, the paſſenger amaz'd / To ſee their mighty Heards, vvith high-palmd heads to threat / The vvoods of o'regrovvne Oakes; as though they meant to ſet / Their hornes to th'others heights. / But novv, both thoſe and theſe / Are by vile gaine deuour'd: So abiect are our daies.
[W]ith fierce Winds Orion arm'd / Hath vext the Red-Sea Coaſt, whoſe waves orethrew / Buſiris and his Memphian Chivalrie, / While with perfidious hatred they purſu'd / The Sojourners of Goſhen, who beheld / From the ſafe ſhore their floating Carkaſes / And broken Chariot Wheels, ſo thick beſtrown / Abject and loſt lay theſe, covering the Flood, / Under amazement of their hideous change.
By hovv much from the top of vvondrous glory, / Strongeſt of mortal men, / To lovveſt pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.
Do you think, my dear Mrs. James, if the Tables had been turned, if my Fortune had been as high in the World as yours, and you in my Diſtreſs and abject Condition, that I would not have climbed as high as the Monument to viſit you?
The wide dominion of the Franks was severed into a thousand pieces. Nothing more than a nominal dignity was left to the abject heirs of an illustrious name, Charles the Bald, and Charles the Fat, and Charles the Simple.
Meanwhile, nearly fifty million dollars were also funnelled through mirror trades to the Khanani network, whose clients include associates of Hezbollah and the Taliban. Deutsche Bank’s reputation was abject even before the mirror-trades scandal broke.
gloss: Complete; downright; utter.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
examples: abject failure   abject nonsense   abject terror
Lord Howard of Escrick accused [John] Ayloffe of proposing to assassinate the Duke of York; but Lord Howard was an abject liar; and this story was not part of his original confession, but was added afterwards by way of supplement, and therefore deserves no credit whatever.
I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods of tears besought him to release me from this engagement, assuring him that my cowardice was abject, and that in every point of intellect and character I was his hopeless and derisible inferior.
gloss: Lower than nearby areas; low-lying.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
rare
examples: The Roots of this Plant [healing wolfsbane (Aconitum anthora)] increaſe abundantly, ſoon overrunning a large Piece of Ground, therefore ſhould be confin'd in ſome abject Part of the Garden, or planted under Trees, it being very hardy, and growing in almoſt every Soil or Situation.
gloss: Of a person: cast down in hope or spirit; showing utter helplessness, hopelessness, or resignation; also, grovelling; ingratiating; servile.
pos: adj
examples: Oh Noble Lord, bethinke thee of thy birth, / Call home thy ancient thoughts from baniſhment, / And baniſh hence theſe abiect lovvlie dreames: […]
O that I vvere a God, to ſhoot forth Thunder / Vpon theſe paltry, ſeruile, abiect Drudges: / Small things make baſe men proud.
[T]hoſe common and quotidian infirmities that ſo neceſſarily attend me, and doe ſeeme to be my very nature, have ſo dejected me, ſo broken the eſtimation that I ſhould have othervviſe of my ſelf, that I repute my ſelfe the moſt abjecteſt piece of mortality: […]
Honeſt men who tell their Sovereigns what they expect from them, and what obedience they ſhall be always ready to pay them, are not upon an equal foot with ſuch baſe and abject flatterers; and are therefore always in danger of being the laſt in the Royal favour.
Indeed, I know nothing ſo abject as the behaviour of a man canvaſſing for a ſeat in parliament— […]
To ſtrike any perſon, even in the moſt abject condition, was a thing in a manner unknown, and would be highly diſgraceful.
Every rich and goodnatured lord was pestered by authors with a mendicancy so importunate, and a flattery so abject, as may in our time seem incredible.
We shall not always plant while others reap / The golden increment of bursting fruit, / Not always countenance, abject and mute / That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap; […]
Benbow watched Goodwin seat the old man in a chair, where he sat obediently with that tentative and abject eagerness of a man who has but one pleasure left and whom the world can reach only through one sense, for he was both blind and deaf: a short man with a bald skull and a round, full-fleshed, rosy face in which his cataracted eyes looked like two clots of phlegm.
gloss: Marginalized as deviant.
pos: adj
tags: noun-from-verb
usually
examples: The abject can easily be grafted onto the immigrant body, which is often conceived as something to be excluded in order to preserve a coherent yet racist national imaginary.
The disclosure of tolerance's hidden phobic lining fits in well with queer theory's embrace of the abject.
gloss: A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; an oppressed person; an outcast; also, such people as a class.
pos: noun
examples: Nevertheleſſe he thatt comfortith the abiecte⸝ comforted vs at the cõmynge of Titus.
VVe are the Queenes abiects and muſt obey.
For honour trauels in a ſtraight ſo narrovv, / VVhere one but goes a breaſt, keepe then the path: / […] if you giue vvay, / Or hedge aſide from the direct forth right; / Like to an entred Tyde, they all ruſh by, / And leaue you hindmoſt: / Or like a gallant Horſe falne in firſt ranke, / Lye there for pauement to the abiect, neere / Ore-run and trampled on: […]
But in mine aduerſitie they reioyced, and gathered themſelues together: yea, the abiects gathered themſelues together againſt me, & I knew it not, they did teare me, and ceaſed not, […]
Servants and abjects flout me; they are wittie: / Now propheſie who ſtrikes thee, is their dittie. / So they in me denie themſelves all pitie: / Was ever grief, [like mine?]
[T]he subject of a tyrant's will / Became, worse fate, the abject of his own, / Which spurred him, like an outspent horse, to death.
Hear ye the serf I bred, begin to reckon / Upon his rights and pleasure! Who am I— / Thou abject, who am I, whose will thou thwartest?
Let us look then to the widely-severed ranks of an Asiatic empire.—There is first its wretched and vilified class, upon which the superincumbent structure of the social system presses so heavily as almost to crush existence; […] Shall these abjects—these victims—these outcasts, know any thing of pleasure?
When the powers that be say a certain group of people are inherently dangerous, whether they're Muslims or Palestinians or trans people, that's them trying to use performative speech to make that group of people impossible to listen to. We become not subjects but abjects, a problem to be managed against our will in the name of a public good that does not recognize us as part of the public.
Related words: abjection
abjective
Derived words: abjectification
abjectify
abjectly
abjectness
nonabject
unabject
Translations: