abject

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English abject (“outcast, rejected”),^[2][3] partly borrowed from Middle French abject (“wretched, despicable”) and partly borrowed from Latin abiectus (“dejected, downcast, humble, mean”),^[4] the past participle of abiciō (“to throw away, cast off; to degrade”),^[4][5][6][7] formed from ab- (“away, off”) and iaciō (“to throw”),^[5][6][3][8] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *ye- (“to throw, impel”).^[5][6] Klein notes that the Latin vowel a of the verb's past participle became e in the compound.^[9] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from 1360–79 in the sense "outcast, rejected".^[10] The OED compares Spanish abyecto and Italian abietto,^[4] and the word is related to jet, eject, object and reject.^[9][2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cast off, rejected, cast out: before 1415, in The Lantern of Light,^[3][4] a sense the OED marks as rare and long obsolete.^[4] Etymonline gives about 1400 for the senses "humble, lowly, poor; of low quality".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the Latin participle's sense of being thrown away only briefly;^[4][7] from about 1430 it was used of people, actions and conditions of low repute, despicable or servile; from about 1450 it was also used of those cast down or brought low in status.^[4] A sense "of poor quality, inferior", used of goods, ran from about 1450 to 1675.^[4] Etymonline dates the figurative "downcast, hopeless" to the 1510s.^[5] The noun, an outcast or degraded person, came in the 1520s, in Tyndale's Bible (1526) for the abject as a class, and in 1528 for a single outcast.^[4][5][2] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective first as "mean, or worthless, spoken of persons", quoting Shakespeare's Henry IV.^[12] In later use it also became an intensifier, as in abject poverty or abject failure.^[4][13] A verb abject, to cast off or to cast down, was used from the 15th to the 17th century,^[5][2] and the OED records a revived mycological sense, to discharge spores, from 1887.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1415 – cast off, rejected (now obsolete).^[3][4]
• c. 1425 – verb, to cast off or reject.^[4][2]
• c. 1430 – of people and actions: despicable, servile, self-abasing.^[4]
• before 1439 – verb, to cast down, to degrade.^[4]
• c. 1450 – brought low, downtrodden; also of goods, of poor quality (obsolete by 1675).^[4]
• 1526 – noun, the abject, outcasts as a class.^[4]
• 1528 – noun, an outcast.^[4][2]
• 1887 – verb, in mycology, to discharge spores.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sunk to a low and wretched state; utterly miserable or hopeless: They lived in abject squalor.^[13][2]
2. Lacking pride or spirit; showing humiliation; servile or submissive: an abject apology.^[13][2]
3. Contemptible; despicable.^[13][4]
4. Showing complete resignation: abject surrender.^[2]
5. (obsolete) Cast off, rejected.^[4][7]

Noun

1. An outcast; a degraded person.^[2][4]

Verb

1. (obsolete) To cast off or out; to reject.^[2][4]
2. (obsolete) To cast down; to abase.^[2][4]

Word family

• abjectly
• abjectness
• unabject

Related words

• abjection
• abjective
• jet
• eject
• object
• reject

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins