a-, ab-, abs- + (Latin: from, away, away from)
This prefix is normally used with elements of Latin and French origins (abs- usually joins elements beginning with c, q or t).
The form ab- is regularly used before all vowels and h; and it becomes a- before the consonants m, p, and v. The prefix apo- has similar meanings.
This list is a very small sample of the multitude of a-, ab-, abs- prefixes that are available in dictionaries and those in this unit are only meant to be examples.
abridge
1. To shorten; to make shorter, to cut short in its duration, to lessen the duration of; originally of time, or things occupying time.
2. To make shorter in words, while retaining the sense and substance of the written text; to condense, epitomize.
3. To produce by shortening from or abridging (a larger work); to condense from.
4. To curtail, to lessen, to diminish (rights, privileges, advantages, or authority).
5. Etymology: from Middle English abregen and Old French abregier, abreger, "to shorten"; from Latin abbreviate; from Latin ad- and breviare, "to shorten"; and from brevis, "short".
abrogate (AB ruh gayt")
1. To abolish or to annul by authority; to nullify, to cancel: "Congress must abrogate the new tax law."
2. To repeal, to annul, or to abolish something formally and publicly; especially, a law.
abrupt, abruptly
1. Ending suddenly; jerky and disconnected; curt and rough in speech.
2. Surprisingly curt; brusque; such as, an abrupt answer made in anger.
3. Touching on one subject after another with sudden transitions: abrupt prose.
4. Steeply inclined; having a sharp inclination; precipitous.
5. In botany, terminating suddenly rather than gradually; truncate: an abrupt leaf.
6. Etymology: made up of ab-, "off" + rumpere, "to break", "to break off".
Word History
Rumpere, in Latin, means "to break, to burst". With the prefix ab, "off", Latin formed abrumpere, "to break off". The past participle abruptus gives the English word abrupt, "broken off".
In Modern English, this meaning has been applied figuratively to the manner of a person who speaks or acts suddenly and curtly, or to things that change suddenly; such as, "breaking off" unexpectedly.
Rupture is an English word that still retains the literal meaning of "bursting", as do disrupt and interrupt, all are derived from the same rumpere.
—Picturesque Word Origins; G. & C. Merriam Company;
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A; 1933; pages 5 and 6.
abscond, absconds, absconding, absconded
To go away hastily and secretly; to run away and hide; especially, in order to escape from the law.
To abscond does not mean to take someone's money, as is commonly supposed, but to go away secretly, fleeing from the law. abscondee, absconder
Someone who absconds or who departs suddenly and secretly in order to escape and to hide.
absent
Not present, to be away from a place.
absolution (ab" suh LOO shuhn)
1. A freeing from sin, guilt, or blame; or a declaration that frees a person from guilt or punishment for sin: "The priest gave absolution to church members which always makes the parishioners feel a great deal better."
2. Release from a duty or promise; discharge: "The soldier obtained absolution from the charges made by a fellow soldier."
absorb
1. To swallow up, to include or to take a thing into the loss of its separate existence; to incorporate.
2. To be swallowed up, or comprised in, so as to no longer exist separately.
3. To engross, or to completely engage the attention or faculties.
4. To take up or to receive (imponderable agents) by chemical or molecular action.
5. To assume the burden of (costs, expenses, etc.).
6. To take in (a shock, jolt, etc.) with little or no recoil or reaction.
7. To take in and not to reflect (light rays are absorbed by black surfaces, cork ceilings absorb sound).
abstain
To hold oneself back; voluntarily do without; refrain (from); abstention.
abstemious
1. Moderation in eating and drinking, sober, temperate; not self-indulgent.
2. Etymology: abs-, ab-, "from, away from" plus temetum, "intoxicating drink, mead, wine".
abstention
1. Abstaining; such as, voluntarily doing without something.
2. A refusal to vote either for or against a proposal.
3. The deliberate choice not to do something.
abstract (s), abstracts (pl)
1. Not concrete; not relating to concrete objects but expressing something that can only be appreciated intellectually.
2. Not easy to understand; based on general principles or theories rather than on specific instances.
3. A brief statement of the essential thoughts of a book, article, speech, court record, etc.
4. A summary of a longer text, especially of an academic article.
5. A concept or term that does not refer to a concrete object but denotes a quality, emotion, or idea; such as, truth, love, hate, etc.
6. Existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment: "He referred to abstract words like 'truth' and 'justice'."
6. A work of art, especially a painting, in an abstract style; not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature.
7. To take away; to remove without permission; to filch; such as, a thief who abstracts a man's money from his pocket takes it away from him.
abstruse
1. Concealed or hidden; hard to understand, deep; obscure.
2. Difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge.
3. Secret, hidden.
4. Etymology: from Latin abstrusus, past participle of abstrudere, "conceal"; litterally, "to thrust away", from ab-, "away" + trudere "to thrust, to push".
ab uno ad omnes
From one to all
Ab uno disce omnes. (Latin: From one, learn all)
From one, learn all.
“From one sample, judge or know all the rest.” -Vergil from his Aeneid. This maxim applies to situations in which the import of a single observation is universally applicable. Such a careless application is considered a trap for faulty generalizaions. See et sic de similibus for similarities.
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