Wiktionary

abortive

English edit

Etymology edit

First attested in 1382, with the meaning "causing stillbirth or miscarriage". From Middle English, from Old French abortif,[1] from Latin abortīvus (“causing abortion”), from aborior (“miscarry, disappear”), from ab (“amiss”) + orior (“appear, be born, arise”).[2]

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

abortive (comparative more abortive, superlative most abortive)

  1. (obsolete) Produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural. [c. 1400–mid 1700s][1]
    an abortive child
  2. Coming to nothing; failing in its effect. [from late 1500s].[1]
    Synonyms: miscarrying, fruitless, unsuccessful, useless
    an abortive attempt
  3. (biology) Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile. [from mid 1700s][1]
    an abortive organ
    an abortive stamen
    an abortive ovule
  4. (medicine, pharmacology, rare) Causing abortion; abortifacient.
    • 1809, Bartholomew Parr, Medical Dictionary:
      abortive medicines
    • 2018 May, Carla Sebastiania, Ludovica Curcioa, Marcella Ciulloa, Deborah Crucianib, Silvia Crottib, Cristina Pescab, Martina Torricellia, Martina Sebastianellia, Andrea Felicic, Massimo Biagetti, “A multi-screening Fast qPCR approach to the identification of abortive agents in ruminants”, in Journal of Microbiological Methods, volume 148, →DOI, page 12:
      Each country may have a different prevalence of infectious abortive agents. The most common agents of abortion in cattle are Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Chlamydiaceae, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira spp., […]
  5. (medicine) Cutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
    abortive treatment of typhoid fever
    • 2016 December, David C. Sheridan, Garth D. Meckler, “Inpatient Pediatric Migraine Treatment: Does Choice of Abortive Therapy Affect Length of Stay?”, in The Journal of Pediatrics, volume 179, →DOI, page 211:
      Even with prophylaxis, children often experience episodic breakthrough headaches that require abortive treatment. […] Abortive therapies in the ED include dopamine antagonists and anti-inflammatory agents.
  6. (medicine, of a disease) Having a short and mild progression, without pronounced symptoms.
  7. Made from the skin of a still-born animal.
    abortive vellum

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Noun edit

abortive (plural abortives)

  1. (obsolete) Someone or something born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion. [Attested from around (1150 to 1350) until the mid 18th century.][1]
  2. (obsolete) A fruitless effort. [Attested from the early 17th century until the early 18th century.][1]
  3. (obsolete) A medicine that causes abortion, an abortifacient.
  4. (obsolete) A medicine or treatment acting to halt or slow the progress of a disease.
    • 1897 August 7, E. Viko, “On the Treatment of Typhoid Fever”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 29, number 6, Chicago, Ill., →DOI, page 274:
      Naphthalin was praised by Rosbach as an abortive in typhoid fever; Kraemer in 1886, Wilcox in 1887, Sehwald in 1889 and Wolff of Philadelphia in 1891 confirmed Rosbach's observations.

Translations edit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb edit

abortive (third-person singular simple present abortives, present participle abortiving, simple past and past participle abortived)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To cause an abortion; to render without fruit. [Attested only in the 17th century.][1]

References edit

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abortive”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 7.
  2. ^ Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 4

French edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

abortive

  1. feminine singular of abortif

German edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

abortive

  1. inflection of abortiv:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /a.borˈti.ve/
  • Rhymes: -ive
  • Hyphenation: a‧bor‧tì‧ve

Adjective edit

abortive

  1. feminine plural of abortivo

Anagrams edit

Latin edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

abortīve

  1. vocative masculine singular of abortīvus

Norwegian Bokmål edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

abortive

  1. definite singular of abortiv
  2. plural of abortiv
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