abstractingn.
/əbˈstraktɪŋ/, U.S. /əbˈstræktɪŋ/, /ˈˌæbˈˌstræktɪŋ/ 1.
a. The action of taking something away; withdrawal, removal; (also) separation; disengagement.
ΚΠ
1478 in T. Thomson Acts Lords Auditors (1839) 77/1 The abstracting & putting away of a lettre.
1579 W. Fulke Confut. Treat. N. Sander in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 609 The abstracting of the image from the matter, and the ioyning of the same with the trueth.
1592 A. Willet Fruitfull & Godly Serm. sig. A7 The abstracting & rauishing of the minde.
1645 T. Urquhart Trissotetras 35 The abstracting of the Radius from the sum of the Sine of the side.
1687 A. Shields Hind let Loose 80 We have many Demonstrations..which will condemn the present course of covering & countenancing them [sc. acts of ministerial corruption], and commend the Contendings of a poor reproached party against them, in their conscientious abstracting from them.
1716 J. Smith Difference Nonjurors & Present Publick Assemblies 8 In this Case, not only the Abstracting of the Thoughts, but the explicit Appearance of the Communicant are disputed as Criminal.
1804 Earl of Lauderdale Inq. Nature & Origin Public Wealth ii. 64 This hypothetical statement of the increase in the value of sugar, which the abstracting of one-half of the supply might occasion.
1839 J. S. Eisdell Treat. Industry Nations I. i. iv. 131 The abstracting of so many persons from productive employment..must diminish the gross produce of the industry of the nation.
1899 Amer. Practitioner & News 28 336 The abstracting of serum by means of saline catharsis.
1997 L. Berlant Queen of Amer. goes to Washington 10 The abstracting of the US state from its citizens has become more acute during the era of Reaganism.
2004 O. D. Cheeseman Environmental Impacts of Sugar Production iii. 72 It is predicted that the practice will decline as abstracting of water in eastern England becomes increasingly unviable.
b. = abstraction n. 2b. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > embezzlement or misappropriation > [noun]
misnimming?c1225
embezzlement1548
malversationc1550
falsity1581
misapplication1607
interverting1614
peculate1617
peculation1658
abstracting1669
plunderage1700
interversiona1754
conveyancing1754
misappropriation1794
abstraction1823
defalcation1832
malappropriation1848
teeming and lading1859
boodlery1886
bobol1907
chop-chop1966
liberation1966
1669 Act conc. Excise & Customes in Laws & Acts Second Parl. Chas. II xi. 401 It is Ordained, that the saids [sic] Processes and Pursutes shall be intended within three Moneths after the fraudful abstracting and imbezling foresaid.
1838 Minutes Evid. Sel. Comm. Postage in Sessional Papers House of Lords XXXIII. 416 The security taken by the Post Office regarding the abstracting or purloining of monies or other property.
1968 Theft Act c. 60 §13. 7 A person who dishonestly uses without due authority..any electricity shall..be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. [margin] Abstracting of electricity.
2. In early use: the selective (sometimes expedient) extraction and reporting of information from a document or statement. Later: the act or process of making a condensed summary of the full content of a document, article, legal deed, etc., esp. as a professional activity; (hence) the occupation or profession of writing abstracts (abstract n. 2). Now frequently attributive, esp. in abstracting service.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > a written composition > extract > [noun] > making extracts
defloration1387
abstracting?1569
excerpting1867
excerption1883
extraction1894
?1569 Earl of Moray Copie of Let. to Ld. Burghley (Harl. 290) f. 46 It shold be metest..to abstract the letters of her hand wryte that she shold not be defamed in England. My replie to that was how the mater had passed in parlament and the lettres seen to many, so that the abstracting of the same could not then serue her to any purpose.
1683 J. Dalrymple Decisions Lords of Council & Session I. 112 If any regard were to such Infeftment, it would open a Door to all Fraud, and abstracting of Defuncts Creditors Evidents.
1822 J. Phillips Conveyancer 74 The following rules apply to the abstracting of the first document.
1884 T. C. Williams Statutes affecting Pract. Conveyancing ii. §iii. 32 The abstracting and production of documents dated before the time of commencement of title.
1932 Libr. Assoc. Year Bk. 75 [Syllabus of Professional Exams] Paper 2... Indexing and Abstracting.
1938 Libr. Jrnl. 1 Apr. 271/2 The most pressing problems connected with the publication of indexing and abstracting services.
1940 S. C. Bradford in Proc. Brit. Soc. for Internat. Bibliogr. 1 12 Such indexing or abstracting agencies or periodicals.
1962 Lancet 19 May 1068/1 Have you ever tried doing abstracts? I once did—for about a year. It was the American articles that caused me the most anguish... It was soon after this that I gave up abstracting.
2000 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 8 Dec. 16 A crofter on Harris..provides an abstracting service for the Metropolitan police forensic laboratory via teleworking.
3. The action of forming or employing abstract ideas or concepts.
ΚΠ
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding ii. xi. 70 The power of Abstracting, is not at all in them [sc. the beasts].
1728 Present State Republick Lett. 1 xxiv. 375 The power of Abstracting, which is the separating any Idea from the circumstances of real existence, as from time, place, and other concomitant Ideas.
1786 Monthly Rev. Nov. 335 Without the powers of abstracting and generalising, it would be impossible to reduce things into any order and method, by dividing them into genera and species.
1838 R. Pennell tr. C. Buffier Conversat. Elem. Metaphysics 132 The word Abstraction..denotes, first, the faculty or power which the Mind possesses of abstracting, or separating in thought what is not separable in fact.
1890 Mind 15 341 This gives the division of imagination into ‘abstracting’, ‘determining’ and ‘combining’.
1969 K. T. Fann Wittgenstein's Conception Philos. ix. 82 The unifying principles, which obscure details and lead to abstracting of essences.
2006 S. Houlgate Opening of Hegel's Logic iv. 91 We continue the activity of abstracting in the very act of deliberately forgetting that that is what we are doing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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