ab

Clipping of English Abkhaz or Russian абха́з (abxáz).

ab

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Abkhaz.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Abkhaz terms

• IPA^(key): /æb/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æb
• Homophones: abb, Ab

ab (plural abs)

1. (informal) Clipping of abdominal muscle [mid 20^th century].^[1]
   • 2006, H. Peter Steeves, The Things Themselves, page 75:

     The bikinied models in most of the ESPN2 shows have abs. Many of the malnourished bikinied models in the commercials have visible rib cages. How did the two get conflated into a shared vision of beauty?

   • 2010, Bill Geiger, "6-pack Abs in 9 Weeks", Reps! 17:106

     When possible, do your ab workout on a day when you're not training a major muscle group […] .

• Most often used attributively. Substantive use is more common in the plural form abs.

Abbreviation of abscess.

ab (plural abs)

1. (slang) An abscess caused by injecting an illegal drug, usually heroin.

Abbreviations.

ab (third-person singular simple present abs, present participle abbing, simple past and past participle abbed)

1. (climbing, informal) To abseil.
   • 1998, Climbing, numbers 178-180, page 22:

     I had a climbing rope in my pack, set up an abseil with it, and abbed down to him.

2. Abbreviation of abort.

ab

1. Abbreviation of abortion.

ab

1. Abbreviation of about.

ab

1. Abbreviation of about.

From the spelling books and the fact that it was the first of the letter combinations.^[2]

ab (plural abs)

1. (US) The early stages of; the beginning process; the start.

• “ab”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• "ab" in Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 2002.
• “ab”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

• -ba-, B. A., B.A., BA, Ba, ba, ba'

Borrowed from Persian آب (âb).

• IPA^(key): /ɑb/

ab

1. water

• Otto Ladstätter, Andreas Tietze, Die Abdal (Äynu) in Xinjiang (1994)

Borrowed from Classical Persian آب (āb).

• IPA^(key): [ɑb]

• Audio (Baku):

  (file)

ab (definite accusative abı, plural ablar)

1. (Classical Azerbaijani) water

   Synonym: su

• ab-hava (“climate”)
• abı (“sky-blue”)

ab

1. fish

• A. Schapper (citing Steinhauer), Elevation in the spatial deictic systems of Alor-Pantar languages, in The Alor-Pantar languages: History and Typology, edited by Marian Klamer
• ASJP, citing L. C. Robinson and G. Holton, Internal classification of the Alor-Pantar language family using computational methods applied to the lexicon (2012)

• IPA^(key): /ap/
• (Before a voiced consonant or a vowel) IPA^(key): /ab/
• (Before a voiced consonant or a vowel in betacist dialects) IPA^(key): /aβ/

ab

1. obsolete form of amb

Borrowed from Persian آب (āb / âb).

ab

1. water

   Synonyms: suv, su, bum-bum

• “ab”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

From Latin ab (“of, from”).

• IPA^(key): /ab/, [ɑb̥]

ab

1. ex (out of, sold from)
2. from (with the origin in time)

See abe (“to ape, mimic”).

• IPA^(key): /aːb/, [æːˀb̥]

ab

1. imperative of abe

• “ab” in Den Danske Ordbog

ab

1. (Strehlen and Schömberg, Silesian) negative particle, do not

From Proto-Mongolic *ab-, compare Mongolian авах (avax).

• IPA^(key): /abqʰə/, [aβqʰə]

ab

1. to take

   Ci ghudal kelese bu cini arasini xuulj' abqu.

   If you tell a lie I will skin you [take your skin].

• (Germany) IPA^(key): /ap/, /ɑp/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• (Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria) IPA^(key): /ɑb̥/
• Rhymes: -ap

From Middle High German abe, ab, from Old High German ab, from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab.

ab [with dative]

1. beginning at that time or location; from

   Ab heute verfügbar.

   Available from today.

• ab und zu

• Norwegian Bokmål: ab

From adverbial use of the prefix ab- in verbs such as abschlagen, abgehen etc. Compare English off.

ab (indeclinable, predicative only)

1. (colloquial, predicative only) off, detached (not attached to anything anymore, having come off)

   Der Arm ist ab.

   The arm has been cut off.

   (literally, “is off”)

2. (nonstandard, attributive) off, detached (not attached to anything anymore, having come off)

   Der abbe Arm ist verschwunden.

   The cut-off arm has disappeared.

• The predicative use is common in colloquial German throughout the country.
• The nonstandard attributive forms are mostly used in Western and Northern Germany and are considerably less common than the predicative use. They used to be used mostly jocularly, but become gradually more frequent since they are much shorter than the appropriate full verb forms such as abgetrennt (“disconnected, severed”).

• The inflected attributive forms retain the devoiced consonant. Hence, sometimes they are spelled with p, rather than b: appes Bein.

Indeclinable, predicative-only.

• abseits

• IPA^(key): /ʔáb/, [ʔáb̚]

ab

1. alternative form of ábi

• Petrollino, Sara (2016), A Grammar of Hamar: A South Omotic language of Ethiopia‎^[1], Leiden University, page 297

ab (plural ab-ab)

1. small pot
2. (dated) father (aba)

ab

1. from

From Latin abbas (“father”), from Ancient Greek ἀββᾶς (abbâs), from Aramaic אַבָּא (’abbā, “father”).

• IPA^(key): /abˠ/

ab m (genitive singular aba, nominative plural abaí)

1. (Christianity) abbot

   Coordinate terms: ban-ab, máthairab

• mac an aba m (“ring finger”)
• tánaiste an aba m (“the next in rank to the abbot”)
• tiarna aba m (“lord abbot”)

Contraction of the relative particle a and the prevocalic variant of the past/conditional copula particle b’.

• IPA^(key): /əbˠ/

ab

1. alternative form of ba (used in relative clauses before a vowel sound)

   Fear maith ab ea é.

   He was a good man.

   buachaill ab áirde ná mo dheartháir ― a boy (who was) taller than my brother

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “ab”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “ab”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “ab”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

ab

1. fire

• Johannes A. Z'Graggen, The Madang-Adelbert Range Sub-Phylum (1975) (as ʌb)
• Bemal Organized Phonology Data (as ab)

From Proto-Mayan *ʔaabʼ.

• IPA^(key): /aːɓ/

ab

1. hammock
2. steam
3. mist

• Christenson, Allen J. (2003), Kʼicheʼ-English dictionary and Guide to the pronunciation of the Kʼicheʼ-Maya alphabet‎^[2], Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, →OCLC, page 7

• ā (not used before a vowel or h)
• abs (Old Latin, exclusively before the pronoun tē)
• af (Old Latin)
• dē ab (Late Latin)

From Proto-Italic *ap, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”) (whence English off, of and after).^[1] See also po-. Cognate with ᾰ̓πό (ăpó). The reconstruction of the Proto-Italic form is somewhat uncertain, as it's not clear when or how the final vowel of the PIE form was lost. The voicing of the final consonant to -b can be interpreted as an example of regular voicing of plosives in word-final position, as in fēced < *fēcet, a sound change that some reconstruct at the common Italic stage. Others explain -b here as the result of analogical extension from clusters ending in a voiced consonant.^[2] The form ap- is attested in composition in Latin aperiō and Umbrian 𐌀𐌐𐌄𐌇𐌕𐌓𐌄 (apehtre).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈab]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈab]

ab (+ ablative)

1. (indicating ablation): from, away from, out of
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 1.1:

     Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit.

     The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae.

2. (indicating ablation): down from
3. (indicating agency): (source of action or event) by, by means of
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 7.4:

     Rex ab suis appellatur.

     The king is saluted by his men.

4. (indicating instrumentality): (source of action or event) by, by means of, with
   • 56 BCE, Cicero, Pro Sestio 42.92:

     Horum utro uti nolumus, altero est utendum. vim volumus exstingui, ius valeat necesse est, id est iudicia, quibus omne ius continetur; iudicia displicent aut nulla sunt, vis dominetur necesse est. hoc vident omnes: Milo et vidit et fecit, ut ius experiretur, vim depelleret. altero uti voluit, ut virtus audaciam vinceret; altero usus necessario est, ne virtus ab audacia vinceretur.

     ...so that virtue might not be overwhelmed by insolence.

   • 45 BCE, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum 1.2:

     Quamquam philosophiae quidem vituperātōribus satis respōnsum est eō librō, quō ā nōbīs philosophia dēfēnsa et collaudāta est, cum esset accūsāta et vituperāta ab Hortēnsiō.

     Although indeed to the vituperators of philosophy an adequate response is in that book, in which philosophy has been defended and highly praised by us [me], when it had been accused and vituperated by Hortensius.

5. (indicating association): to, with
   • Ad, Rōmānōs IIX.XXX:

     ... Sī Deus ā nōbīs est, quis contrā nōs?

     ... If God is with us, who is against us?

6. (indicating location): at, on, in
7. (time) after, since

   Ab urbe conditā.

   From the founding of the City.

Used in conjunction with passive verbs to mark the agent.

• Liber ā discipulō aperītur.

  The book is opened by the student.

• abhinc

• French: à
• Italian: a
• Spanish: a
• Portuguese: a
• → Norwegian Bokmål: a, ab (learned)

• “ab”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ab”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• ab, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a gentle ascent: collis leniter ab infimo acclivis (opp. leniter a summo declivis)
    
  • the east winds are blowing: venti ab ortu solis flant
    
  • the Rhone[TR2] is the frontier between the Helvetii and the Sequani: Rhodanus Sequanos ab Helvetiis dividit
    
  • to be far from town: longe, procul abesse ab urbe
    
  • to devote every spare moment to...; to work without intermission at a thing: nullum tempus intermittere, quin (also ab opere, or ad opus)
    
  • in the fifth year from the founding of the city: anno ab urbe condita quinto
    
  • to be always at a person's side: ab alicuius latere non discedere
    
  • to turn one's gaze away from an object: oculos deicere, removere ab aliqua re
    
  • to trace one's descent from some one: originem ab aliquo trahere, ducere
    
  • a native of England: ortus ab Anglis or oriundus ex Anglis
    
  • from one's entry into civil life: ab ineunte (prima) aetate (De Or. 1. 21. 97)
    
  • to begin with a thing: initium capere; incipere ab aliqua re
    
  • to start from small beginnings: ab exiguis initiis proficisci
    
  • the motive, cause, is to be found in..: causa repetenda est ab aliqua re (not quaerenda)
    
  • to originate in, arise from: ab aliqua re proficisci
    
  • to rescue from destruction: ab exitio, ab interitu aliquem vindicare
    
  • to gain a person's esteem, friendship: gratiam inire ab aliquoor apud aliquem
    
  • to look favourably upon; to support: propenso animo, studio esse or propensa voluntate esse in aliquem (opp. averso animo esse ab aliquo)
    
  • to gain one's point with any one: aliquid ab aliquo impetrare
    
  • to win golden opinions from every one: maximam ab omnibus laudem adipisci
    
  • to have a good or bad reputation, be spoken well, ill of: bene, male audire (ab aliquo)
    
  • to use up, make full use of one's spare time: otio abūti or otium ad suum usum transferre
    
  • to draw away some one's attention from a thing: alicuius animum ab aliqua re abducere
    
  • to hold the same views: idem sentire (opp. dissentire ab aliquo)
    
  • to apply to a person for advice: consilium petere ab aliquo
    
  • to rescue from oblivion: aliquid ab oblivione vindicare
    
  • to be quite uncivilised: ab omni cultu et humanitate longe abesse (B. G. 1. 1. 3)
    
  • to be educated by some one: litteras discere ab aliquo
    
  • to receive instruction from some one: institui or erudiri ab aliquo
    
  • to derive an argument from a thing: argumentum ducere, sumere ex aliqua re or petere ab aliqua re
    
  • to disagree with a person: dissentire, dissidere ab or cum aliquo
    
  • to go back to the remote ages: repetere ab ultima (extrema, prisca) antiquitate (vetustate), ab heroicis temporibus
    
  • to have no taste for the fine arts: abhorrere ab artibus (opp. delectari artibus)
    
  • to go a long way back (in narrative): longe, alte (longius, altius) repetere (either absolute or ab aliqua re)
    
  • no sound passed his lips: nulla vox est ab eo audita
    
  • to extract an answer from some one: responsum ab aliquo ferre, auferre
    
  • to translate from Plato: ab or de (not ex) Platone vertere, convertere, transferre
    
  • to form, derive a word from... (used of the man who first creates the word): vocabulum, verbum, nomen ducere ab, ex...
    
  • the word amicitia comes from amare: nomen amicitiae (or simply amicitia) dicitur ab amando
    
  • to be separated by a deadly hatred: capitali odio dissidere ab aliquo (De Am. 1. 2)
    
  • to prevent some one from growing angry, appease his anger: animum alicuius ab iracundia revocare
    
  • to revenge oneself on some one: ulcisci aliquem, poenas expetere ab aliquo
    
  • to revenge oneself on another for a thing or on some one's behalf: poenas alicuius or alicuius rei repetere ab aliquo
    
  • to protect any one from wrong: ab iniuria aliquem defendere
    
  • to neglect one's duty: ab officio discedere
    
  • to neglect one's duty: de, ab officio decedere
    
  • to let oneself be perverted from one's duty: ab officio abduci, avocari
    
  • to have an inclination for a thing: propensum, proclivem esse ad aliquid (opp. alienum, aversum esse, abhorrere ab aliqua re)
    
  • the principles which I have followed since I came to man's estate: meae vitae rationes ab ineunte aetate susceptae (Imp. Pomp. 1. 1.)
    
  • to summon some one from the dead: aliquem ab inferis or a mortuis evocare, excitare (passive ab inferis exsistere)
    
  • to ask for an oracular response: oraculum petere (ab aliquo)
    
  • from beginning to end: ab ovo usque ad mala (proverb.)
    
  • the conversation began with..: sermo ortus est ab aliqua re
    
  • something has been left as a legacy by some one: hereditate aliquid relictum est ab aliquo
    
  • I have received a legacy from a person: hereditas ad me or mihi venit ab aliquo (Verr. 2. 1. 10)
    
  • to lend, borrow money at interest: pecuniam fenori (fenore) alicui dare, accipere ab aliquo
    
  • to borrow money from some one: pecuniam mutuari or sumere mutuam ab aliquo
    
  • to demand an account, an audit of a matter: rationem alicuius rei reposcere aliquem or ab aliquo
    
  • to demand an account, an audit of a matter: rationem ab aliquo reptere de aliqua re (Cluent. 37. 104)
    
  • to gain some one's favour: gratiam inire apud aliquem, ab aliquo (cf. sect. V. 12)
    
  • to be on a person's side (not ab alicuius partibus): ab (cum) aliquo stare (Brut. 79. 273)
    
  • to hold different views in politics: ab aliquo in re publica dissentire
    
  • to deliver some one from slavery: ab aliquo servitutem or servitutis iugum depellere
    
  • to exact a penalty from some one: poenam petere, repetere ab aliquo
    
  • to exact a penalty from some one: poenas expetere ab aliquo
    
  • to lay down arms: ab armis discedere (Phil. 11. 33)
    
  • to demand satisfaction, restitution: res repetere (ab aliquo) (Off. 1. 11. 36)
    
  • to gain a victory over the enemy: victoriam reportare ab hoste
    
  • putting aside, except: cum discessi, -eris, -eritis ab
    

ab

1. (archaic) or

• vai

ab

1. (archaic) around

• ap

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑˀb/, [ˈɑˀb̥]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

a’b

1. shoulder
   • 2012–2013, “ab”, in Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits, editors, Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary]‎^[4], Tartu, Riga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra:

     pǟ um abūd vaisõ sizzõl viedtõd

     recoiled, flinched

     (literally, “head is drawn in shoulders”)

LĒL also features a partitive plural form with -īdi as in the example abīdi nustõ "to shrug."

From Proto-Finnic *api.

a’b

1. help, aid, assistance

• Tiit-Rein Viitso; Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), “a’b”, in Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary]‎^[5] (in Estonian and Latvian), Tartu, Rīga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra

• aband, abann

From Old Irish aub, from Proto-Celtic *abū.

ab f (genitive aba)

1. river

• Irish: abha, abhainn
• Manx: awin
• Scottish Gaelic: abhainn

• IPA^(key): /ɑːb/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːb
• Hyphenation: ab

From German ab (“from”), from Middle High German ab, from Old High German ab (“of”), from Proto-Germanic *ab (“away, away from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”).

ab

1. (economics) from; (i.e. delivered) for the seller's expense at a location and forwarded for the buyer's expense

   ab Frankfurt ― from Frankfurt

   ab varelager ― from inventory

   ab fabrikk ― from factory

2. (economics, obsolete) as of

   ab mai

   as of May

• abgeschmackt (“gross, tasteless”)
• abgeschmackthet (“grossness, tastelessness”)

From Latin ab (“from, away from, on, in”), from Proto-Italic *ab, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”).

• (modern) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːbə/
• (older) IPA^(key): /ɑˈbeː/

• Audio (modern):

  (file)

• Audio (older):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːbə, -eː
• Hyphenation: a‧b

ab

1. only used in ab ovo (“ab ovo”)

Abbreviation of avbetaling (“installment”), verbal noun form of avbetale (“to pay off”), a compound of av +‎ betale, first part av (“of, from, by, off”), from Old Norse af (“of, from, off, by”), from Proto-Germanic *ab (“away from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”) + second part betale (“pay, purchase”), from Middle Low German betalen (“of, from, off, by”), last part is the suffix -ing (“-ing”), from Old Norse -ingr m, -ingi m, -ing f, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō.

ab

1. (colloquial) abbreviation of avbetaling (“installment”)
   • 1974, Kari Bakke, Gråspurven, page 22:

     møbler og vaskemaskin på AB

     furniture and washing machine on installments

• avbetale (“pay in installments”)

• “ab_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “ab_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “ab_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “ab” in Store norske leksikon

• amb
• dab (Gascon)
• damb (Gascon, Aranese)
• ambé (Provençal)
• embé (Provençal, Niçard)

From Latin ab.

ab

1. (Guardiol) with

• Pei, Mario A. 1948. Ab and the survival of the Latin genitive in Old Italian. Italica 25. 104–106.

Reduced form of Latin apud.

ab

1. (10th century) with

• avoec (used throughout Old French into the Middle and modern French periods)

From Proto-Germanic *ab.

ab

1. of

• German: ab
  • Norwegian Bokmål: ab

Reduced form of Latin apud

ab

1. with
   • c. 1000, unknown, Lo Poèma de Boecis:

     Non comprarias ab mil liuras d’argent.

     [That] you couldn't buy with a thousand pounds of silver.

• Occitan: amb
• Catalan: amb

• IPA^(key): /ap/

ab

1. to give, hand over.

Compare German ab, Dutch af, English off.

ab

1. off
2. from
3. away

Inherited from Proto-Yeniseian *ab (“father”).

ab (M., W., VW., Kl.)

1. (sociology) father

• Werner, Heinrich (2005), “ab”, in Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 179

• ob

Uncertain. Compare English hobble, Dutch hobbelen (“to lurch”), Danish happe (“to stutter”), Norwegian jabba (“to stammer”) and colloquial Swedish happla (“to stutter”).

• IPA^(key): /ab/, /ɔb/

ab (plural abs)

1. (Orkney) impediment, hindrance, objection.

ab (simple past abed)

1. (Orkney) to hinder

• “ab, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

ab m (genitive singular aba, plural abachan)

1. alternative form of aba

ab

1. romanization of 𒀊 (ab)
2. romanization of 𒀖 (ab)

• âb

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish آب (āb, “water”), from Classical Persian آب (āb).

• Audio:

  (file)

ab (definite accusative abı, plural ablar)

1. (obsolete, poetic) water

• “ab”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

Borrowed from German aber (“but”).

• IPA^(key): /ab/

ab

1. but.

From fab, soft mutation of mab (“son”).

• IPA^(key): /ab/

ab

1. A patronymic indicator; son of.

This form is found before vowels. Before a consonant, the form ap is used.

• ach
• ferch

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “ab”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

ab

1. a/an (singular indefinite article)

Precedes the noun.