Chapter Abstemious to Accost of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Abstemious to Accost

Abstemious according to Fabius and Aulus Gellius, is compounded of abs and temetum. "Temetum" was a strong, intoxicating drink, allied to the Greek methu (strong drink).

Vinum prisca lingua temetum appellabant." - Aulus Gellius, x. 23.

Abstract Numbers are numbers considered abstractly - 1, 2, 3; but if we say 1 year, 2 feet, 3 men, etc., the numbers are no longer abstract, but concrete.

Taken in the abstract. Things are said to be taken in the abstract when they are considered absolutely, that is, without reference to other matters or persons. Thus, in the abstract, one man is as good as another, but not so socially and politically.

Abstraction An empty Abstraction, a mere ideality, of no practical use. Every noun is an abstraction, but the narrower genera may be raised to higher ones, till the common thread is so fine that hardly anything is left. These high abstractions, from which everything but one common cord is taken, are called empty abstractions.

For example, man is a genus, but may be raised to the genus animal, thence to organised being, thence to created being, thence to matter in the abstract, and so on, till everything but one is emptied out.

Absurd means strictly, quite deaf. (Latin, ab, intensive, and surdus, deaf.)

Reduction ad absurdum. Proving a proposition to be right by showing that every supposable deviation from it would involve an absurdity.

Abudah A merchant of Bagdad, haunted every night by an old hag; he finds at last that the way to rid himself of this torment is to "fear God, and keep his commandments." - Tales of the Genii.

"Like Abudah, he is always looking out for the Fury, and knows that the night will come with the inevitable hag with it." - Thackeray.

Abundant Number (An). A number such that the sum of all its divisors (except itself) is greater than the number itself. Thus 12 is an abundant number, because its divisors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 = 16, which is greater than 12.

A Deficient number is one of which the sum of all its divisors is less than itself, as 10, the divisors of which are 1, 2, 5 = 8, which is less than 10.

A Perfect number is one of which the sum of all its divisors exactly measures itself, as 6, the divisors of which are 1, 2, 3 = 6.

Abus the river Humber.

"For by the river that whylome was hight
The ancien Abus ... [was from]
Their chieftain, Humber, named aright."

And Drayton, in his Polyolbion, 28, says: -

"For my princely name.
From Humber, king of Huns, as anciently it came."
See Geoffrey's Chronicles, Bk. ii. 2.

Abyla A mountain in Africa, opposite Gibraltar. This, with Calpe in Spain, 16 m. distant, forms the pillars of Hercules.

Heaves up huge Abyla on Afric's sand,
Crowns with high Calpe Europe's salient strand."
Darwin: Economy of Vegetation.

Abyssinians A sect of Christians in Abyssinia, who admit only one nature in Jesus Christ, and reject the Council of Chalcedon.

Acacetus One who does nothing badly. It was a name given to Mercury or Hermes for his eloquence. (Greek, a , not, kakos, bad.)