English
abstraction
Abstraction comes from Middle English abstraccyone ‘reclusiveness’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500abstraccyone‘reclusiveness’
- Englishearliest quotation 1832abstraction
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500abstraccyone‘reclusiveness’
- Englishearliest quotation 1832abstraction
Earliest quotation: 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty: “One penny, sir!" He was roused at once from…”
Formed from abstract + -ion
Latin trahō ‘to pull, draw’
Latin abstrahō ‘draw away’
Latin abstractus ‘drawn away from, having been drawn away from’
Middle English abstract ‘having been above the ground’
English abstract
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ‘to run, to drag, to pull’
draw, train, draft, drag, retreat, draught, extraction, distraction, contraction, retract, entreat, subtraction, 49 more
through Latin trahō ‘drag, haul’
treat, contract, portrait, attractive, extract, trait, attraction, tractor, tram, tract, trattoria, 37 more
Today it means
noun The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English abstraccyone / abstraction