abortion

From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort +‎ -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”).

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• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/, enPR: əʹbôrshən
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən

abortion (countable and uncountable, plural abortions)

1. (medicine) The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus; either naturally as a spontaneous abortion (now usually called a miscarriage), or deliberately as an induced abortion. [from 16th c.]

   Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.

   • 1809, William Nicholson, The British Encyclopaedia, vol IV:

     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.

   • 1997, Carlin, George, Brain Droppings‎, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, LCCN 96-52373, OCLC 36084460, OL 26335012M, page 93:

     It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months.

   • 2017, Ben Jacobs, The Guardian, 5 October:

     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.

2. (now rare) An aborted foetus; an abortus. [from 16th c.]
   • 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford 2008, p. 657:

     ‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’

   • 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own:

     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.

3. (figuratively) A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity. [from 16th c.]
   • 1846, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Pictures from Italy‎:

     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.

   • 1889, Edward Bellamy, “To Whom This May Come”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, New York, page 459, column 2:

     His voice was the most pitiable abortion of a voice I had ever heard.

   • 2000, Jules, “please dont buy beacon cd”, in alt.fan.allman-brothers, Usenet:

     Dickey on his own manages to turn a simple bo diddley 1-2-3-4 into an absolute abortion of a song.

   • 2003, David Kerekes, Headpress 24: Powered by Love, page 133:

     an absolute abortion of a book

4. (figuratively) Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc. [from 17th c.]
   • 1800 September 23, Jefferson, Thomas, Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush‎:

     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.

   • 2013, Fakhry A. Assaad, James W. LaMoreaux, Travis Hughes, Field Methods for Geologists and Hydrogeologists, →ISBN, page 314:

     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.

   • 2015, Gabriele Brandstetter, Poetics of Dance: Body, Image, and Space, →ISBN, page 73:

     […] the abrupt abortion of the trip after eleven days.

5. (biology) Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed. [from 18th c.]
6. The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.

• abort (obsolete), abortus
• (induced abortion): aborticide, feticide, foeticide, termination (of pregnancy)
• (act of terminating pregnancy): aborticide, embryoctony, feticide, foeticide, termination (of pregnancy)
• (spontaneous abortion): miscarriage, misbirth

• abortion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• boration, orbation, rainboot