abolition

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French abolition (“amnesty; complete destruction”) and directly borrowed from Latin abolitiō (“destruction, cancellation, annulment”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a noun of action from abolitus, the past participle of aboleō (“to destroy, efface, abolish”),^[7][3][8][9] the source of abolish.^[7][4] The French word, recorded as abolucion in 1316 for the annulling of an offence, had that sense in 1405 and "complete destruction" in 1538.^[2] The origin of aboleō is uncertain: Etymonline gives it as ab- (“away”) with the second part of adoleō (“to grow”), from Proto-Indo-European *al- (“to grow, nourish”), or else from a root shared with Ancient Greek ὄλλυναι (óllunai, “to destroy”),^[3] which the OED prefers.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of abolishing something, doing away with it: 1529, in Thomas More's Supplycacyon of Soulys.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th and 18th centuries the word also had a legal sense taken from French and Latin, the pardoning of an offence or leave to drop a prosecution (1606–1809).^[2] Johnson (1755) noted that abolition was by then more common than abolishment.^[10] From 1785 it was used, without a complement and often with a capital, for the ending of the African slave trade and of slavery,^[2][5] and abolitionist followed in 1788, in Thomas Clarkson.^[4] In British territories the word refers to the end of the slave trade in 1807 and of slavery in 1833, and in the United States to emancipation in 1863–65.^[11]

Timeline

• 1529 – the act of abolishing something.^[2][4]
• 1606 – an amnesty; leave to drop a prosecution (obsolete by 1809).^[2]
• 1785 – the ending of the slave trade and of slavery.^[2]
• 1788 – abolitionist.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of abolishing something, or the state of being abolished; abrogation: the abolition of the death penalty.^[5][11][2]
2. (often capitalized) The ending of slavery or of the slave trade, in the British Empire or the United States.^[11][5][2]
3. (obsolete, 1606–1809) An amnesty; in law, leave to drop a criminal prosecution.^[2][9]

Word family

• abolitionary
• abolitionize
• nonabolition
• abolitionism
• abolitionist
• proabolition
• proabolitionist

Related words

• abolish
• adolescent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins