abortiven.adj.
/əˈbɔːtɪv/, U.S. /əˈbɔrdɪv/ A. n.† 1. † 2. Spontaneous or induced abortion of a fetus; an instance of this. Obsolete. rare.† 3. figurative. The fruitless or unsuccessful outcome of an endeavour; an unfulfilled object or aim. Obsolete.
a. An aborted fetus; a stillborn child or animal. Cf. abortion n. 2, abortus n. 1. Obsolete.In early use sometimes employed as a term of abuse; cf. sense B. 1b.
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the world > animals > family unit > [noun] > offspring or young > abortive
abortivea1382
the world > life > death > dead person or the dead > [noun] > dead child > still-born child
abortivea1382
abort1578
dead-birth1676
still1864
still-born1913
still-birth1963
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Job iii. 16 Or as abortif [L. abortivum] hid I shulde not abide, or that conceyued seȝen not liȝt.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 22849 (MED) Þe childir þat es abortiues, Þaa þat er not born oliues, Sal rise in thritte winter eild.
?a1425 (?1373) Lelamour Herbal (1938) f. 82v (MED) Make a tentur of woll and wete hit in that lecour and put hit in womanys shappe and hit castith oute abortife.
a1500 (?c1425) Speculum Sacerdotale (1936) 185 (MED) I am the leste of you alle that Crist haþ lokyd to as to an abortyfe.
1582 Bible (Rheims) 1 Cor. xv. 8 And last of al, as it were of an abortiue [L. abortivo] he was seen also of me.
c1600 (?c1395) Pierce Ploughman's Crede (Trin. Cambr. R.3.15) (1873) 244 Fy on his pilche! He is but abortijf, eked wiþ cloutes! He holdeþ his ordynaunce wiþe hores and þeues.
a1626 W. Rowley Birth of Merlin (1662) sig. F2v Bearded abortive, thou foretel my danger!
1634 H. Peacham Gentlemans Exercise (new ed.) i. xxv. 88/2 Take the fine skin of an Abortive which you may buy in Paternoster-row.
1712 J. Warder True Amazons iii. 25 Some of them [sc. bee larvae] die in their cells; but this seldom happens but to such as are bred in early in the Spring, who are in more danger or proving Abortives, than those that are bred in the warmer Months.
1762 T. W. in Philos. Trans. 1761 (Royal Soc.) 52 48 From hence abortives and stilborn are included in the burials.
1837 N. Whittock et al. Compl. Bk. Trades (1842) 371 Drum-heads are made..from abortives, or at least very young sucking calves called ‘slunk’ by the workmen.
1851 C. Elliott Delineation Rom. Catholicism ii. ii. 213 Whether the baptism of abortives can be said to be a doctrine of the Church of Rome..may be questioned.
b. = abortive parchment n. at Compounds. Obsolete.
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society > communication > writing > writing materials > material to write on > skin (vellum or parchment) > [noun] > vellum > type of
abortivea1500
a1500 in G. Henslow Med. Wks. 15th Cent. (1899) 125 Ȝif þou wilte make letters on abortiue or bortiue, lai þi oile also þynne þeron als þou may.
1519 W. Horman Vulgaria viii. f. 80v That stouffe that we wrytte vpon:..is somtyme called parchement, somtyme velem, somtyme abortyue.
c1600 N. Hilliard Treat. Art Limning (1912) 34 Virgine parchment, such as neuer bore haire..; some calle it vellym, some abertiue [sic] (deriued frome the word abhortiue for vntimly birthe).
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of pregnancy or birth > [noun] > miscarriage
abort?a1425
abortion?1537
aborsement1540
miscarrying1568
abortive1587
abortment1595
miscarriage1615
amblosis1706
efflux1754
abortus1764
mc1956
12 Concl. Lollards (Trin. Hall Cambr.) in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1907) 22 303 (MED) Sleyng of children or þei ben cristenid, aborcife [perh. read abortife; L. procuracio aborcii] and stroying of kynde be medicine ben ful sinful.
1587 L. Mascall Bk. Cattell (1627) iii. 246 Also abortiues come when they giue them in some place nothing but akornes for their meate.
1605 W. Hill Infancie of Soule sig. D 4 The foundation or ground of the Law is this: That if the Soule be infused, and an Abortiue caused; then there is murther committed.
1708 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum (ed. 2) I Ebolica, are Medicines which help the Delivery in hard Labour: Also Medicines which cause Abortives.
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1589 W. Warner Albions Eng. (new ed.) To Rdr. sig. O2v Yet for some respects and imperfections do I accompt it [sc. his work] but as an Obortiue.
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 391 Yet give mee leaue..to cast forth my conjecture (although it is an abortiue) concerning this point.
1654 T. Fuller 2 Serm. 75 Whether this will ever be really effected, or whether it will prove an Abortive..Time will tell.
1706 D. Defoe Jure Divino ix. 19 It [sc. the Work] scarce out-liv'd The hated Birth: The wild Abortive dy'd.
1787 A. O'Leary Defence 67 Bishops..disturb the dead in their graves..by casting at their thresholds abortives they disclaim.
4. A drug or other agent that causes abortion; an abortifacient.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > obstetric drug > [noun] > abortive drug
abortive1647
amblotic1706
female pillc1743
abortifacient1857
1647 R. Stapleton tr. Juvenal Sixteen Satyrs 19 Whil'st with abortives [L. abortivis] the poore Julia marr'd Her fruitefull wombe.
1720 tr. H. Boerhaave De Viribus Medicamentorum xxxi. 224 The most forcing Medicines are the Abortives, which open the Uterus, and expell the Fœtus.
1838 Southern Literary Messenger Feb. 77/1 We have no patience with a philosophy which, like those Roman matrons who swallowed abortives in order to preserve their shapes, takes pain to be barren for fear of being homely.
1865 H. W. Baxley What I saw on W. Coast of S. & N. Amer. xxxiv. 540 Partial observers say that the fewness of children is owing to the use of abortives.
1961 G. Reichel-Dolmatoff & A. Reichel-Dolmatoff People of Aritama vii. 301 Quite often it is really fear of childbirth rather than her poverty which induces a woman to take an abortive.
1991 Past & Present Aug. 7 A contraceptive differs from an abortive,..for the first does not let conception take place, while the latter destroys what has been conceived.
B. adj.
1.
a. Born prematurely; being the product of a miscarriage, stillborn. Also figurative and in figurative contexts.
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the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > confinement > [adjective] > giving birth > complications of childbirth or pregnancy
abortivea1450
still-born1607
footling1699
premature1754
abortifacient1858
underborn1884
postmature1895
post-term1928
preterm1928
born alive1957
prem1961
a1450 Dis. Women (Douce) f. 11, in Middle Eng. Dict. at Abortif With suche puttynge þe secundynne myght brek & so þe Chylde be abortyffe and stroyde for euyr.
1483 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 89074) (1881) 2 Abortyve, abortiuus.
a1500 (c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) v. 628 Na lange it mycht noucht [lest] on lywe, For causse þat it fel abortywe [a1500 Adv. 19.2.3 abortif, a1550 Wemyss abortyffe].
1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus (new ed.) sig. 37 The question of mariage is abortiue, & therefore must needs be a weakeling.
1614 B. Rich Honestie of Age (1844) 6 These abortiue brates that are thus hastely brought into the world.
1674 R. Hooke Diary 24 May (1935) 104 Nell brought me an abortive child from Blackfryers—which I put in Spirit of Wine.
1703 R. Calder Vindic. Serm. 10 I with great Reluctancy condescended to the desire of these Gentlemen to be the Mid-wife of bringing this once thought, abortive Child into the World.
1792 H. Downman Lucius Junius Brutus iii. i, in Trag. 58 Dream'd-of insult, the abortive child Of misconstruction.
1844 A. Norton Evid. Genuineness Gospels III. iii. vii. 136 Wisdom, the last of the Æons, brought forth an abortive offspring without union with her spouse.
1877 Times 8 Feb. 6/6 It may seem strange that one who followed so many short-lived or abortive children should have reached the extreme limit of old age.
1917 Amer. Anthropologist 19 507 Another bystander recalled the story of the abortive child..which was thrown into the sea.
1996 Vigiliae Christianae 50 332 These terms must relate to misguided Sophia and her abortive child Jehova.
b. Of, relating to, or resulting from abortion or failure. Also: monstrous.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > involving abnormal growth or misshapen
monstruousc1425
misgrowna1450
monstrous1530
abortive1587
tetralogic1889
1587 E. Hake Oration conteyning Expostulation sig. D.i The gracelesse prosecution of some daungerous and abortiue Title.
1595 R. Southwell St. Peter's Complaint 29 Ah feare, abortiue ympe of drouping mind: Selfe ouerthrow: false friend: root of remorce.
1597 C. Brooke Elegy Crofte (1873) ii. 177 You haue done yo[u]r worst to date her dayes, Whilome the worlde's, nowe heaven's abortive guest.
1611 T. Heywood Golden Age v. sig. I4v We but saue Our Innocent bodies from th' abortiue graue.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 441 With utter loss of being Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf. View more context for this quotation
1746 P. Francis & W. Dunkin tr. Horace Satires i. iii. 64 Is he of dwarfish and abortive size? ‘Sweet little moppet,’ the fond father cries.
1796 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 86 501 In this case, gems never cohere, the abortive one falls.
1827 Q. Rev. Mar. 549 Abortive things, which, having done their little dirty jobs of impiety and pollution, are already gone into perdition.
1852 N. Hawthorne Blithedale Romance xiv. 147 Poor, miserable, abortive creatures, who only dream of such things because they have missed woman's peculiar happiness.
1901 J. Davidson Self's the Man ii. 103 Truly, Osmunda, my conspiracy Is rooted in your will. You cast it out; It dies, and as I say it, disappears Into the limbo of abortive things.
2003 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 11 Oct. 3 The abortive creatures recall Hieronymus Bosch's fantastical paintings.
c. Failing to produce viable offspring; ending in abortion. Also in figurative contexts.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of pregnancy or birth > [adjective] > miscarrying
abortive1600
miscarrying1611
abortional1843
1600 C. Middleton Legend Duke of Glocester sig. C3v Nature the great mother of vs all, Who in abortiue birth brought foorth our age; And looking on her childe, fore-saw t'wold fall To this disordred, and vnnat'rall rage.
1607 Claudius Tiberius Nero sig. G3 Could I not get some Taxus to haue made, My wombe abortiue, when I him conciu'd?
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. ii. i. iii. 72 They [sc. Witches and Magitians]..make women abortiue, not to conceaue.
1662 R. Mathews Unlearned Alchymist (new ed.) §87. 121 It..then brought from her an abortive or false conception.
1732 W. Ellis Pract. Farmer 157 The Rain..prevents the flying about of the Farina fœcundus , or impregnating Dust, without which, Generation in Plants becomes abortive.
1795 W. Huntingdon Living Testimonies xl. 216 God has not given thee a miscarrying womb, nor a dry breast; thine is not an untimely, nor an abortive birth.
1829 J. D. Godman tr. A. Levasseur Lafayette in Amer. in 1824 & 1825 II. iv. 50 This constitution, the abortive conception of a great genius, was destroyed in 1720.
1875 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 38 177 The best proved results of these unions are, failure of conception, abortive conception and miscarriage, monstrosities, disposition of nervous complaints.
1928 Lancet 6 Oct. 704/1 The 309 mothers had had 678 abortive conceptions out of 1697 pregnancies.
1951 Jrnl. Mammalogy 32 265 Abortive parturition in dolphins is generally prolonged... Generally, normal births are rapid.
2001 Jrnl. Reprod. Immunol. 51 21 It may be that the observed differences in cytokine production by peripheral lymphocytes do not accurately indicate what is occurring at the local maternofoetal interface during successful and abortive pregnancies.
d. Causing abortion or miscarriage. Cf. abortifacient adj.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of pregnancy or birth > [adjective] > causing miscarriage
abortive1708
1708 tr. Municius Felix Octavius in Two Excellent Monuments 71 What's more common among you, than to strangle the new born Child, or else by an abortive Potion, murther him before he is born.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Abortion Roman authors speak of the poculum abortionis or abortive draught.
1856 C. J. Hempel tr. G. H. G. Jahr Homeopathic Treatm. Dis. Females 126 In many cases metrorrhagia is induced by a stimulating diet, abuse of spirits, coffee, drugs,..or by exciting the parts by lascivious novels, thoughts or conversations, or finally by the use of abortive means.
1894 Times 10 Jan. 3/4 It contained a large portion of ergot of rye, which was one of the strongest abortive drugs known.
1969 Rural Sociol. 34 604 Contraceptive and abortive methods of a mechanical type could also increase the sterility and mortality rates.
1988 J. Keown Abortion, Doctors & Law ii. 37 Ryan's work stated that there was no medicine or abortive means which produced abortion and nothing but abortion.
2003 Population 58 670 The methods known and used vary by country, as does the availability of contraceptive and abortive products on both official and unofficial markets.
2. figurative. Failing to produce the intended result; coming to nought; unsuccessful; useless, wasted.
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the world > action or operation > failure or lack of success > [adjective]
unsped1390
unprosperous1496
speedlessa1542
successless1584
abortive1593
still-born1600
unsuccessful1617
unsuccessive1617
unsucceeding1639
insuccessful1646
birthless1649
failed1655
misproving1798
inconclusive1841
abortional1843
nonsuccessful1867
also-ran1900
1593 T. Lodge Phillis sig. E Your liues had beene abortiue bace and nought, Except by happie loue they had beene fathered.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iv. i. 61 Let it make thee Crest-falne, I, and alay this thy abortiue Pride. View more context for this quotation
1665 Petit in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 43 This also proved abortive, though there was great appearance of success at first.
1713 J. Addison Cato iii. vii Our first design, my friend, has prov'd abortive.
1778 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (ed. 2) I. iii. 213 Though this attempt proved abortive it was not without benefit.
1827 W. Scott Surgeon's Daughter in Chron. Canongate 1st Ser. II. ii. 35 Two slips of ground, half arable, half overrun with an abortive attempt at shrubbery.
1876 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest II. ix. 420 He would rather have laboured to hinder Ealdred's mission, or to make it abortive.
1925 F. S. Fitzgerald Great Gatsby v. 104 His lips parted with an abortive attempt at a laugh.
1959 Economist 30 May 819/1 The abortive Shawwaf revolt in Mosul set off a slugging match between Cairo and Baghdad.
1992 N.Y. Times 19 July iv. 1/1 No one is quite sure of the long-range effect of Mr. Perot's abortive candidacy.
2004 B. Bunch & A. Hellemans Hist. Sci. & Technol. 427/4 An air lock..is introduced to eliminate caisson disease (nicknamed the bends) as part of an abortive attempt to build a tunnel under the Hudson River at New York City.
3. Biology. Arrested or imperfect in development; sterile, barren; rudimentary. Cf. abort v. 3, abortion n. 3.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > infertility > [adjective]
yelda1100
barrenc1200
geldc1225
untudderya1325
unfruitinga1400
infecundc1420
unfruitfula1425
fruitlessa1513
infertile1598
abortive1601
sterile1612
effete1621
deaf1633
improlifical1646
subventaneous1652
improlifica1661
unprolific1672
unfructifying1827
subfertile1846
agenesic1864
eggless1904
shy1905
radiosterilized1960
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > growth > types of growth
unthriftyc1440
unthriving1600
abortive1601
stunted1719
abortient1768
stockeda1796
hypertrophic1832
accretionary1841
accretional1843
homonomous1854
stasimorphic1869
geomalic1880
homoeotic1894
concrescent1902
infantilistic1930
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvi. xxv. 472 And a wonderfull thing it is to see what abortive fruit [L. abortus] these Figge-trees have, and how it never commeth to ripenesse.
1759 J. Mills tr. H. L. Duhamel du Monceau Pract. Treat. Husbandry i. xvi. 88 The abortive ears grow on rickety stalks.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. x. 107 The florets..of the ray are imperfect, and therefore abortive or frustrate.
1826 J. M. Good Bk. Nature I. viii. 198 The thorns of plants are abortive branches.
1866 D. Livingstone Jrnl. (1873) I. iii. 60 He had an abortive toe.
1879 tr. A. de Quatrefages de Bréau Human Species 74 Datura seeds, which he observed to become abortive or devoid of embryo.
1906 A. L. Winton & J. Moeller Microsc. Veg. Foods vi. 386 Gall flowers, that is abortive pistillate flowers which do not develop seeds, but serve as a breeding place for the wasp.
1930 H. G. Newth Marshall & Hurst's Junior Course Pract. Zool. (ed. 11) xii. 272 The Müllerian ducts are abortive in the male, their anterior ends alone being present.
1992 W. T. Parsons & E. G. Cuthbertson Noxious Weeds Austral. 19/2 Salvinia is considered to be a sterile pentaploid hybrid that, in mature dense stands, forms spore sacs containing abortive spores.
4.
a. Medicine and Microbiology. Of an infection, disease, etc.: not running the typical or full course. In later use also (of a virus infection): not resulting in viral replication.
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1752 W. Douglass Summary State Brit. Settlements N.-Amer. II. xvi. 408 Whatever Infection first takes place, renders the subsequent Infections Effeet or Abortive, and as the Inoculated Small-Pox is more expeditious in its Course, any other Infection would prove Abortive.
1863 Med. Times & Gaz. 6 June 588/2 She had had many abortive attacks since, but no actual fit.
1872 W. Aitken Sci. & Pract. Med. (ed. 6) I. 564 The designations gastric and nervous fever in common use exactly correspond to what modern physicians mean by abortive enteric fever.
1933 Lancet 21 Jan. 123/2 The periodic occurrence of visual symptoms alone in a migrainous subject is highly suggestive of an abortive attack.
1951 Tubercle 32 99/2 Löffler's syndrome explains many of the so-called ‘abortive pneumonias’.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 97 417/1 These may result in abortive infections, such as production of non-infectious hemagglutinin.
1992 H. E. Gendelman & P. S. Morahan in C. E. Lewis & J. O'D. McGee Macrophage iv. 166 Intracerebral inoculation of visna-maedi virus into British sheep results in an abortive infection of CNS macrophages and no disease.
1996 Pain 67 504/2 In migraine without aura some episodes of tension-type-like headaches may probably be abortive migraine attacks.
b. Medicine. Of a treatment: arresting (or intended to arrest) the progress of a disease or pathological process.
ΚΠ
1839 N.-Y. Jrnl. Med. & Surg. 1 180 He lays it down as a rule, that ‘chancre at its commencement, whatever may be its form, imperiously demands the abortive method of treatment’.
1889 Lancet 18 May 1003/1 When the vesicles [of herpes zoster] have not actually formed,..we wish to adopt a true abortive treatment, so as altogether to prevent their formation.
1959 Jrnl. Southern Hist. 25 60 Dr. Thomas M. Logan delivered a memorial address in which he credited Luzenberg with developing the ‘abortive treatment’ for yellow fever.
1978 Lancet 2 Dec. 1180/2 All patients were permitted to use abortive therapy once a migraine attack had started.
1994 Jrnl. Hist. Sexuality 5 289 Most Scottish health officials and practitioners resisted prophylactic treatment [for venereal disease] such as the provision of..ablution centers (for ‘abortive’ treatment after exposure).
2004 Pharmacoepidemiol. & Drug Safety 13 41 Data from a large prescription database involving 95 patients initiating a specific abortive migraine drug (ergotamine or a triptan) and subsequently treated with either an ACE inhibitor or angiotensin receptor antagonist..were analysed.
Compounds
abortive parchment n. now historical a kind of fine parchment made from the skin of a stillborn calf or other animal.
ΚΠ
a1611 S. Forman Bodl. MS Ashmole 1491 in R. Reed Anc. Skins, Leathers & Parchments (1972) 144 Take the parchment of a calfes skin abortive which is a kind of velume parchmente such as hath no pores appearing therin.]
a1650 E. Norgate Miniatura (Tanner 326) (1919) 52 Insteed of abortive parchment, by some called Gilding Vellum, make use of your pure white velim.
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1664 (1955) III. 374 A sort of paper very broad thin, & fine like abortive parchment.
1731 J. Morgan Phœnix Britannicus 264 Flints Skin, or abortive Parchment Boots.
1738 G. Smith Curious Relations II. 152 Their Amulets or Charms were wrote either upon fine Paper, abortive Parchments, Wafers, or other fine Substances.
1925 Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 4 Dec. 23/4 It [sc. the oldest bible] is illuminated in gold, cardinal and blue and is made on abortive parchment.
1954 W. G. Constable Painter's Workshop iv. 47 Edward Norgate in his Miniatura (1609-50) speaks of abortive parchment.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
† abortivev.
Obsolete.
1. transitive. To cause abortion; to make ineffectual or fruitless.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > productiveness > unproductiveness > render unproductive [verb (transitive)]
salta1586
abortive1615
abortivate1625
1615 Albumazar i. iii One of your bold thunders may abortive And cause that birth miscarry.
1661 O. Felltham Resolves (rev. ed.) 373 In War, the vexed Earth abortives all her fruitfulness.
1699 J. Evelyn Acetaria Pref. sig. a5v This is that which Abortives the Perfection of the most Glorious and Useful Undertakings.
1788 Let. 3 Sept. in P. Hoare Mem. Granville Sharp (1820) iii. viii. 331 We..have found our endeavours hitherto abortived.
2. intransitive. To miscarry, prove abortive. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > failure or lack of success > fail or be unsuccessful [verb (intransitive)]
withsitc1330
fail1340
defaulta1382
errc1430
to fall (also go) by the wayside1526
misthrive1567
miss1599
to come bad, or no, speedc1600
shrink1608
abortivea1670
maroon1717
to flash in the pan1792
skunk1831
to go to the dickens1833
to miss fire1838
to fall flat1841
fizzle1847
to lose out1858
to fall down1873
to crap out1891
flivver1912
flop1919
skid1920
to lay an egg1929
to blow out1939
to strike out1946
bomb1963
to come (also have) a buster1968
a1670 J. Hacket Scrinia Reserata (1693) ii. 147 When peace came so near to the Birth, how it abortived..comes now to be remembered.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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n.adj.a1382
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