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abort

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Etymology and origin of the English word abort

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1425 translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie
Borrowed from
Latin abortus
Ultimate origin
Latin orior
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin orior
Latin aborior
Latin abortus
English abort
From the same root
Latin coorior ← orior
Latin oborior ← orior
Latin origo ← orior
Latin suborior ← orior
Latin abortivus ← aborior

Pronunciation

  • UK: /əˈbɔːt/[1]
  • US: /əˈbɔɹt/[1]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Latin abortus (“premature delivery, miscarriage, abortion, dead fetus”),[2][3][4] a verbal noun from aborior (“to disappear, be lost, miscarry”).[3][2] The verb comes partly from the past participle of the same Latin verb,[2][3][5][4] and partly from a post-classical Latin verb of the Vulgate meaning to miscarry, itself derived from the noun.[2][3] The American Heritage Dictionary, Klein and Collins derive it instead from abortō (“to bring forth prematurely”), a frequentative of the same verb;[6][7][8] this is the source of French avorter, which the OED only compares.[2] The Latin verb, which Etymonline notes was used of deaths, miscarriages and sunsets, is formed from ab- (“away; amiss”) and orior (“to rise, appear, be born”).[2][5][6][7] Watkins derives the second element from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to move, set in motion”), against de Vaan and others.[5][6] Etymonline adds that the Latin verb for producing an abortion was abigō (“to drive away”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, a miscarriage or abortion, is first recorded in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie from about 1425;[2][3] it was obsolete in this sense by 1656.[2] The verb, of a pregnant woman or animal, to miscarry, is first recorded in 1540, in R. Jonas's translation of Roesslin's Byrth of Mankynde;[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.[5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the verb only as "to bring forth before the time; to miscarry".[9] A figurative use, to bring something to a premature end, appeared about 1548; from 1620 an undertaking could itself abort, come to nothing.[2][5] In biology, from 1754, an organ aborts when its development stops so that it stays rudimentary or disappears.[2][3] The transitive senses of deliberate termination came late: to end a pregnancy (1887) and to perform an abortion on a woman (1908),[2] which Etymonline dates to 1916.[5] In aeronautics, from 1946, a pilot or crew could abort a flight or mission,[2][5] and the noun followed in 1954 for an abandoned mission or procedure;[2][4] the verb was then extended to cancelling a program or process, including a computer program.[2][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – noun, a miscarriage or abortion (obsolete by 1656).[2]
  • 1540 – verb, of a woman or animal, to miscarry.[2][3]
  • c. 1548 – to bring to a premature end.[2]
  • 1578 – noun, an aborted fetus.[2]
  • 1620 – of an undertaking, to come to nothing.[2]
  • 1653 – to expel a fetus.[2]
  • 1754 – in biology, to stop developing and remain rudimentary.[2]
  • 1887 – to terminate a pregnancy.[2]
  • 1908 – to perform an abortion on a woman.[2] Etymonline dates this use to 1916.[5]
  • 1946 – to abandon a flight or mission.[2][5]
  • 1954 – noun, an abandoned mission or procedure.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To end a pregnancy before the fetus can survive; to undergo or carry out an abortion.[8][2][3]
  2. To miscarry; to expel a fetus before it is viable.[8][3][2]
  3. To stop a mission, launch, procedure or computer program before it is complete: The pilot aborted the landing in the fog.[8][2][3]
  4. To fail or come to an end early.[8][2][3]
  5. (biology) To stop developing, so as to remain rudimentary or shrink away.[3][2]

Noun

  1. The ending of a flight, mission or procedure before completion; also, an aircraft or rocket that fails in this way.[3][2][4]
  2. (obsolete, c. 1425–1656) A miscarriage or abortion.[2][3][4]

Word family

  • aborter
  • abortifacient
  • abortion
  • abortive
  • abortus

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Abort.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/abort. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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