abstraction

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English abstraccioun,^[2] borrowed from Middle French abstraction^[3][4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Late Latin abstractiō (“separation”),^[3][4][7][8] from abstractus, the past participle of Latin abstrahō (“to drag away, detach”),^[5][6][9] formed from abs- (“away”) and trahō (“to draw”),^[5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *tragh- (“to draw, drag, move”).^[5] In French the word meant the extraction of a foreign body from a wound in the 13th century and the mind's isolating of concepts from 1370;^[3][4] in medieval Latin it meant separation in thought from the 6th century.^[3] It is the noun of abstract.^[5][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Withdrawal from worldly affairs towards spiritual things: about 1450, in the Orologium Sapientiae, a text composed before 1400,^[3][2] dated about 1400 by Etymonline and before 1400 by Barnhart.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense soon had company: the taking away of something (1467),^[3] and since 1579 the philosophical sense, the considering of something apart from its particular associations, along with an idea formed in that way.^[3] Etymonline and Barnhart date the sense "an abstract idea" later, to Milton's Of Education (1644).^[5][6] Johnson (1755) explained it as the withdrawing of some part of an idea from its other parts.^[10] Chemists used it for separating one substance from another (1617),^[3] and absent-mindedness was abstraction from 1791, in Boswell's Life of Johnson.^[3] Charles Lamb used it euphemistically for theft in 1823.^[3][8] The art sense, freedom from representation, is recorded from 1909,^[3] about 1915 according to Barnhart,^[6] and since 1921 the word also meant an abstract work of art.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – withdrawal from worldly things.^[3][2]
• 1467 – the taking away of something.^[3]
• 1579 – considering something in the abstract; an abstract idea.^[3]
• 1617 – the separation of one substance from another, in chemistry.^[3]
• 1644 – an abstract idea, in Milton.^[6][5]
• 1791 – absence of mind.^[3]
• 1823 – theft, embezzlement.^[3]
• 1909 – non-representational quality in painting.^[3]
• 1921 – an abstract work of art.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process of forming general ideas by taking out the qualities that particular things share.^[11][4]
2. A general idea or concept formed in this way, as opposed to a concrete thing: Justice and mercy are abstractions.^[11][4]
3. Absent-mindedness; preoccupation: She stared out of the window in deep abstraction.^[11][4]
4. The act of taking away or removing; also, a euphemism for theft.^[11][4][8]
5. An abstract painting or sculpture, or the quality of being non-representational in art.^[11][4][3]
6. (logic) An operator that forms a class name or predicate from an expression.^[11]

Word family

• abstractional
• abstractive
• abstractionism
• abstractionist

Related words

• abstract
• abstracted
• tract
• extraction
• distraction
• attraction
• traction

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins