abject

Etymology 1

PIE word *h₂epó The adjective is derived from Late Middle English abiect, abject (“expelled, outcast, rejected, wretched”, adjective) [and other forms], from Middle French abject (“worthy of utmost contempt or disgust, despicable, vile; of a person: brought low, cast down; of low social position”) (modern French abject, abjet (obsolete)), and from its etymon Latin abiectus (“abandoned; cast or thrown aside; dejected, downcast; ordinary, undistinguished, unimportant; (by extension) base, sordid; despicable, vile; humble, low; subservient”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abiciō (“to discard, throw away or down; to cast or push away or aside; to abandon, give up; to belittle, degrade, humble; to lower, reduce; to overthrow, vanquish; to undervalue; to waste”), from ab- (prefix meaning ‘away; away from; from’) + iaciō (“to cast, hurl, throw, throw away”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)). The noun is derived from the adjective. cognates * Italian abiecto (obsolete), abietto * Late Latin abiectus (“humble or poor person”, noun) * Spanish abjecto (obsolete), abyecto

adj

1. Existing in or sunk to a low condition, position, or state; contemptible, despicable, miserable.
   Meanwhile, nearly fifty million dollars were also funnelled through mirror trades to the Khanani network, whose clients include associates of Hezbollah and the Taliban. Deutsche Bank’s reputation was abject even before the mirror-trades scandal broke. 23 September 2020, Ed Caesar, “The FinCEN Files Shed New Light on a Scandalous Episode at Deutsche Bank”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: New Yorker Magazine Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-03-16
2. (by extension)
   1. (chiefly with a negative connotation) Complete; downright; utter.
      abject failure   abject nonsense   abject terror
   2. (rare) Lower than nearby areas; low-lying.
3. Of a person: cast down in hope or spirit; showing utter helplessness, hopelessness, or resignation; also, grovelling; ingratiating; servile.
   We shall not always plant while others reap / The golden increment of bursting fruit, / Not always countenance, abject and mute / That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap; […] 1927, Countee Cullen, “From the Dark Tower”, in Copper Sun, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, part 1 (Color); republished in James Weldon Johnson, editor, The Book of American Negro Poetry[…], revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931, →OCLC, page 228
4. (sociology, usually nominalized) Marginalized as deviant.
   The abject can easily be grafted onto the immigrant body, which is often conceived as something to be excluded in order to preserve a coherent yet racist national imaginary. 2007, Sean Brayton, “MTV's Jackass: Transgression, Abjection and the Economy of White Masculinity”, in Journal of Gender Studies, volume 16, page 59
   The disclosure of tolerance's hidden phobic lining fits in well with queer theory's embrace of the abject. 2009, W. C. Harris, Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture, SUNY Press, page 98

noun

1. A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; an oppressed person; an outcast; also, such people as a class.
   Let us look then to the widely-severed ranks of an Asiatic empire.—There is first its wretched and vilified class, upon which the superincumbent structure of the social system presses so heavily as almost to crush existence; […] Shall these abjects—these victims—these outcasts, know any thing of pleasure? 1832, [Isaac Taylor], “The Third Heavens”, in Saturday Evening.[…], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC, page 414

Etymology 2

From Late Middle English abjecten (“to cast out, expel”) [and other forms], from abiect, abject (adjective) (see etymology 1). Sense 3 (“of a fungus: to give off (spores or sporidia)”) is modelled after German abschleudern (“to give off forcefully”).

verb

1. To cast off or out (someone or something); to reject, especially as contemptible or inferior.
   Rather than abjecting her own fat body, the Ipecac-taking fat girl is abjecting diet culture. 2001, Le’a Kent, “Fighting Abjection: Representing Fat Women”, in Jana Evans Braziel, Kathleen LeBesco, editors, Bodies out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, part I (Revaluing Corpulence, Redefining Fat Subjectivities), page 141
2. To cast down (someone or something); to abase; to debase; to degrade; to lower; also, to forcibly impose obedience or servitude upon (someone); to subjugate.
3. (mycology) Of a fungus: to (forcibly) give off (spores or sporidia).