abstersion

See also: abstersión

English

Etymology

From Middle English abstersioun, from either Old French or Medieval Latin abstertion, from Latin abstersus, past participle of abstergēo (“I wipe off or away”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /æbˈstɜː.ʒn̩/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æbˈstɝ.ʒn̩/, /əbˈstɝ.ʒn̩/, /æbˈstɝ.ʃn̩/, /əbˈstɝ.ʃn̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

abstersion (countable and uncountable, plural abstersions)

1. (archaic) Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
   • 1814, Sir Walter Scott, Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since:

     Waverley ... was offered the patriarchal refreshment of a bath for the feet ... He was not, indeed, so luxuriously attended upon this occasion as the heroic travellers in the Odyssey; the task of ablution and abstersion being performed, not by a beautiful damsel, trained To chafe the limb, and pour the fragrant oil, but by a smoke-dried skinny old Highland woman, who did not seem to think herself much honoured by the duty imposed upon her...

Translations

the act of cleaning

• Bulgarian: прочистване (bg) n (pročistvane), промиване n (promivane)
• Catalan: abstersió f
• Dutch: reiniging (nl) f, zuivering (nl) f
• Polish: czyszczenie (pl)
• Portuguese: abstersão f
• Spanish: abstersión (es) f

Anagrams

• botanisers

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English abstersioun.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əbˈstɛrʃən/

Noun

abstersion (plural abstersions)

1. abstersion

References

• Eagle, Andy, editor (2024), “abstersion”, in The Online Scots Dictionary‎^[1]