different between abstraction vs abstractionist

English

Etymology

From Middle English abstraccyone; either from Middle French abstraction or from Medieval Latin abstr?cti? (“separation”), from Latin abstrah? (“draw away”). Equivalent to abstract +? -ion.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?st?æk.?n?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æb?st?æk.?n?/, /?b?st?æk.?n?/

Noun

abstraction (countable and uncountable, plural abstractions)

1. The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
   • 1848, J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy:

     The cancelling of the debt would be no destruction of wealth, but a transfer of it: a wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community, for the profit of the government, or of the tax-payers.

   1. (euphemistic) The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
   2. (engineering) Removal of water from a river, lake, or aquifer.
2. A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]

   a hermit's abstraction

3. The act of focusing on one characteristic of an object rather than the object as a whole group of characteristics; the act of separating said qualities from the object or ideas. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]
   • c. 1837, W. Hamilton, in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860), Lecture XXXV, page 474:

     Abstraction is no positive act: it is simply the negative of attention.

   Abstraction is necessary for the classification of things into genera and species.

4. Any characteristic of an individual object when that characteristic has been separated from the object and is contemplated alone as a quality having independent existence.
5. A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup.
6. The act of comparing commonality between distinct objects and organizing using those similarities; the act of generalizing characteristics; the product of said generalization. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]
7. An idea or notion of an abstract or theoretical nature. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]

   to fight for mere abstractions.

8. Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects; preoccupation. [First attested in the late 18^th century.]
9. (art) An abstract creation, or piece of art; qualities of artwork that are free from representational aspects. [First attested in the early 20^th century.]
10. (chemistry) A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation.
11. An idea of an idealistic, unrealistic or visionary nature.
12. The result of mentally abstracting an idea; the product of any mental process involving a synthesis of: separation, despecification, generalization, and ideation in any of a number of combinations.
13. (geology) The merging of two river valleys by the larger of the two deepening and widening so much so, as to assimilate the smaller.
14. (computing) Any generalization technique that ignores or hides details to capture some kind of commonality between different instances for the purpose of controlling the intellectual complexity of engineered systems, particularly software systems.
15. (computing) Any intellectual construct produced through the technique of abstraction.

Synonyms

• (the act of generalization): universalization; see also Thesaurus:generalization

Antonyms

• (the act of generalization): specialization; see also Thesaurus:specialization
• (mentally abstracting): concretization

Derived terms

Related terms

• abstract

Translations

References

Further reading

• abstraction at OneLook Dictionary Search
• abstraction in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• abstraction in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Glossary of Water Terms, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin abstr?cti?, abstr?cti?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ap.st?ak.sj??/
• Homophone: abstractions

Noun

abstraction f (plural abstractions)

1. abstraction

Derived terms

• faire abstraction

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Romanian: abstrac?ie

Further reading

• “abstraction” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

abstraction +? -ist

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /æb?st?æk.??n.?st/

Adjective

abstractionist (comparative more abstractionist, superlative most abstractionist)

1. Related or tending to abstractionism, particularly art.

Translations

Noun

abstractionist (plural abstractionists)

1. An idealist. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.]
2. Someone who supports or creates abstract art.

Translations

References