different between allowance vs abatement

English

Alternative forms

• allowaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French alouance.

Morphologically allow +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??la??ns/

Noun

allowance (countable and uncountable, plural allowances)

1. permission; granting, conceding, or admitting
2. Acknowledgment.
3. That which is allowed; a share or portion allotted or granted; a sum granted as a reimbursement, a bounty, or as appropriate for any purpose; a stated quantity.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

     Some persons averred that Sir Pitt Crawley gave his brother a handsome allowance.

4. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II

     After making the largest allowance for fraud.

5. (commerce) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, differing by country.

6. (horse racing) A permitted reduction in the weight that a racehorse must carry.

   Antonym: penalty

7. A child's allowance; pocket money.

8. (minting) A permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coins, owing to the difficulty in securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.
9. (obsolete) approval; approbation

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Crabbe to this entry?)

10. (obsolete) license; indulgence
    • 1695, John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity

      this Allowance for their Transgressions

Synonyms

• (act of allowing): authorization, permission, sanction, tolerance.
• (money): stipend
• (minting): remedy, tolerance

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

allowance (third-person singular simple present allowances, present participle allowancing, simple past and past participle allowanced)

1. (transitive) To put upon a fixed allowance (especially of provisions and drink).

2. (transitive) To supply in a fixed and limited quantity.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle French abatement, from Old French abatre. Equivalent to abate (“to beat down”) +? -ment (“the result of”).

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /??be?t.m?nt/

Noun

abatement (countable and uncountable, plural abatements)

1. The act of abating, or the state of being abated; a lessening, diminution, or reduction; a moderation; removal or putting an end to; the suppression of. [First attested from 1340 to 1470.]

   The abatement of a nuisance is the suppression thereof.

2. The amount abated; that which is taken away by way of reduction; deduction; decrease; a rebate or discount allowed; in particular from a tax. [Late 15^th century.]
3. (heraldry) A mark of dishonor on an escutcheon; any figure added to the coat of arms tending to lower the dignity or station of the bearer.[Early 17^th century.]

Synonyms

allowance, assuagement, declension, decline, decrease, deduction, depreciation, diminution, discount, drawback, ebb, evanishment, fading, lessening, lowering, mitigation, moderation, rebate, reduction, remission, settling, sinking, subsidence, waning

Antonyms

accession, accretion, aggrandizement, augmentation, development, dilation, enlargement, growth, increase, increment,

Derived terms

• defense in abatement
• plea in abatement

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman abatre (“to abate”) + -ment.

Noun

abatement (countable and uncountable, plural abatements)

1. (law) The action of a person that abates, or without proper authority enters a residence after the death of the owner and before the heir takes possession.
2. (law) The reduction of the proceeds of a will, when the debts have not yet been satisfied; the reduction of taxes due.[First attested around 1150 to 1350.]

References

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at [1]