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Origin and history of abjection

abjection(n.)

c. 1400, "humbleness, low state, meanness of spirit, abject situation, groveling humility," from Old French abjection (14c.), from Latin abiectionem (nominative abiectio) "dejection, despondency," literally "a throwing away, a casting off," noun of action from past-participle stem of abicere "to throw away, cast off; degrade, humble, lower," from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + iacere "to throw" (past participle iactus; from PIE root *ye- "to throw, impel").

abjection

also from c. 1400

Entries linking to abjection

ab-

word-forming element meaning "away, from, from off, down," denoting disjunction, separation, departure; from Latin ab (prep.) "off, away from" in reference to space or distance, also of time, from PIE root *apo- "off, away" (also the source of Greek apo "off, away from, from," Sanskrit apa "away from," Gothic af, English of, off; see apo-).

The Latin word also denoted "agency by; source, origin; relation to, in consequence of." Since classical times usually reduced to a- before -m-, -p-, or -v-; typically abs- before -c-, -q-, or -t-.

*ye-

*yē-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to throw, impel."

It might form all or part of: abject; abjection; adjacence; adjacent; adjective; aphetic; catheter; circumjacent; conjecture; deject; ease; ejaculate; eject; enema; gist; ictus; interjacent; inject; interject; interjection; jess; jet (v.1) "to sprout or spurt forth, shoot out;" jet (n.1) "stream of water;" jete; jetsam; jettison; jetton; jetty (n.) "pier;" joist; jut; object; objection; objective; paresis; project; projectile; reject; rejection; subjacent; subject; subjective; trajectory.

It might also be the source of: Hittite ijami "I make;" Latin iacere "to throw, cast."

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    dejection
    condition, degradation, humiliation;" c. 1500, "state of being depressed or in low spirits," from Old French dejection "abjection...
    degeneration
    c. 1600, "loss or impairment of the qualities proper to the race or kind," also figurative, "descent to an inferior state," from French dégéneration (15c.) or directly from Late Latin degenerationem (nominative degeneratio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin degen
    decadence
    1540s, "deteriorated condition, decay," from French décadence (early 15c.), from Medieval Latin decadentia "decay," from decadentem (nominative decadens) "decaying," present participle of decadere "to decay," from Latin de- "apart, down" (see de-) + cadere "to fall" (from PIE roo
    depth
    late 14c., "a deep place, deep water, the sea," also "distance or extension from the top down (opposed to height) or from without inward," apparently formed in Middle English on model of long/length, broad/breadth; from dēp "deep" (see deep (adj.)) + -th (2). Replaced older deopn
    chorus
    1560s, in drama, "person who speaks the prologue and explains or comments on events on stage," from Latin chorus "a dance in a circle, the persons singing and dancing, the chorus of a tragedy," from Greek khoros "round dance; dancing-place; band of dancers; company of persons in
    quench
    Middle English quenchen, "to extinguish, put out" (heat, light, fire, also of desire, hunger, thirst), also figurative, "to bring to naught, eliminate, render ineffectual" (c. 1200), Old English acwencan "to quench" (of fire, light), from Proto-Germanic *kwenkjanan, probably a ca
    akimbo
    "with the hands on the hips and the elbows bent outward at sharp angles," c. 1400, in kenebowe, of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle English phrase in keen bow "at a sharp angle" (with keen in its Middle English sense of "sharp" + bow "arch"), or from a Scandinavian word akin t
    soldier
    c. 1300, souder, soudiour, "fighting man, one engaged ion military service," from Old French soudier, soldier and Anglo-French variants, "one who serves in the army for pay," from Medieval Latin soldarius "a soldier" (source also of Spanish soldado, Italian soldato), literally "o
    graffiti
    1851, "ancient wall inscriptions found in the ruins of Pompeii," from Italian graffiti, plural of graffito "a scribbling," a diminutive formation from graffio "a scratch or scribble," from graffiare "to scribble," ultimately from Greek graphein "to scratch, draw, write" (see -gra
    osmosis
    "the tendency of fluids to pass through porous partitions and mix with each other; the diffusion of fluids through membranes," 1867, Latinized from osmose (1854), a shortened form of endosmose "inward passage of a fluid through a porous septum" (1829), from endo- "inward," which

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