ab

English Online Dictionary. What means ab‎? What does ab mean?

Translingual

Symbol

ab

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

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Abkhaz terms

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

Noun

ab (plural abs)

1. (informal) Clipping of abdominal muscle. [Mid 20^th century.]
   • 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 […] .

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of abscess.

Noun

ab (plural abs)

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

Translations

Etymology 3

Abbreviations.

Verb

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

1. (climbing, informal) To abseil.
2. Abbreviation of abort.

Noun

ab

1. Abbreviation of abortion.

Preposition

ab

1. Abbreviation of about.

Adverb

ab

1. Abbreviation of about.

Etymology 4

From the spelling books and the fact that it was the first of the letter combinations.

Noun

ab (plural abs)

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

References

• “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.

Anagrams

• -ba-, B. A., B.A., BA, Ba, ba, ba'

Äynu

Etymology

Borrowed from Persian آب (âb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑb/

Noun

ab

1. water

References

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

Azerbaijani

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian آب (āb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɑb]

Noun

ab (definite accusative abı, plural ablar)

1. (Classical Azerbaijani) water

   Synonym: su

Declension

Related terms

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

Blagar

Noun

ab

1. fish

References

• 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)

Catalan

Pronunciation

• 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/

Preposition

ab

1. Obsolete form of amb.

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Persian [Term?]

Noun

ab

1. water

   Synonyms: suv, su, bum-bum

Declension

References

• “ab”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

Danish

Etymology 1

From Latin ab (“of, from”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ab/, [ɑb̥]

Preposition

ab

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

Etymology 2

See abe (“to ape, mimic”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːb/, [æːˀb̥]

Verb

ab

1. imperative of abe

Further reading

• “ab” in Den Danske Ordbog

East Central German

Particle

ab

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

East Yugur

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /abqʰə/, [aβqʰə]

Verb

ab

1. to take

German

Pronunciation

• (Germany) IPA^(key): /ap/, /ɑp/
• (Switzerland, Austro-Bavarian) IPA^(key): /ɑb̥/
• Rhymes: -ap

Etymology 1

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

Preposition

ab [with dative]

1. beginning at that time or location; from

Derived terms

• ab und zu

Descendants

• Norwegian Bokmål: ab

Etymology 2

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

Adjective

ab (indeclinable, predicative only)

1. (colloquial, predicative only) off; not attached to anything anymore

2. (nonstandard, attributive) off; not attached to anything anymore

Usage notes

• The predicative use is common in colloquial German throughout the country.
• The 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.

Declension

Indeclinable, predicative-only.

Related terms

• abseits

Hamer-Banna

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔáb/, [ʔáb̚]

Determiner

ab

1. Alternative form of ábi

References

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

Indonesian

Noun

ab (plural ab-ab)

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

Interlingua

Preposition

ab

1. from

Irish

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /abˠ/

Noun

ab m (genitive singular aba, nominative plural abaí)

1. (Christianity) abbot

   Coordinate terms: ban-ab, máthairab

Declension

Derived terms

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

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əbˠ/

Particle

ab

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

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

Related terms

Mutation

Further reading

• 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, 2013–2025

Kein

Noun

ab

1. fire

Further reading

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

K'iche'

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːɓ/

Noun

ab

1. hammock
2. steam
3. mist

References

• Allen J. Christenson, Kʼiche-English dictionary, page 7

Latin

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ap, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”) (whence English off, of and after). 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. The form ap- is attested in composition in Latin aperiō and Umbrian 𐌀𐌐𐌄𐌇𐌕𐌓𐌄 (apehtre).

Pronunciation

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

Preposition

ab (+ ablative)

1. (indicating ablation): from, away from, out of

2. (indicating ablation): down from
3. (indicating agency): (source of action or event) by, by means of
4. (indicating instrumentality): (source of action or event) by, by means of, with
5. (indicating association): to, with
   • Heauton Timorumenos (“The Self-Tormentor”) by Publius Terentius Afer

     Homo sum, humani nihil ā me alienum puto.

     I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.

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

Usage notes

Used in conjunction with passive verbs to mark the agent.

Related terms

• abhinc

Descendants

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

References

Further reading

• “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^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
• Lingua Latina, Hans H. Ørberg, 2005.

Latvian

Conjunction

ab

1. (archaic) or

Synonyms

• vai

Preposition

ab

1. (archaic) around

Synonyms

• ap

Livonian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑb/

Noun

a'b

1. (anatomy) shoulder
   • Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz, Tartu, Rīga: TÜ, LVA

     pǟ um abūd vaisõ sizzõl viedtõd

     recoiled, flinched (lit. "head is drawn in shoulders")

2. help

Usage notes

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

Declension

Middle Irish

Alternative forms

• aband, abann

Etymology

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

Noun

ab f (genitive aba)

1. river

Descendants

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

Mutation

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑːb/
• Rhymes: -ɑːb
• Hyphenation: ab

Etymology 1

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”).

Preposition

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

Derived terms

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

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

• (modern) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːbə/
• (older) IPA^(key): /ɑˈbeː/
• Rhymes: -ɑːbə, -eː
• Hyphenation: a‧b

Preposition

ab

1. Only used in ab ovo (“ab ovo”)

Etymology 3

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.

Noun

ab

1. (colloquial) Abbreviation of avbetaling (“installment”).

Derived terms

Related terms

• avbetale (“pay in installments”)

References

• “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

Occitan

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From Latin ab.

Preposition

ab

1. (Guardiol) with

References

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

Old French

Etymology

Reduced form of Latin apud.

Preposition

ab

1. (10th century) with

Synonyms

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

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ab.

Preposition

ab

1. of

Descendants

• German: ab
  • Norwegian Bokmål: ab

Old Occitan

Etymology

Reduced form of Latin apud

Preposition

ab

1. with

Descendants

• Occitan: amb
• Catalan: amb

Parauk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ap/

Verb

ab

1. to give, hand over.

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

Compare German ab, Dutch af, English off.

Preposition

ab

1. off
2. from
3. away

Pumpokol

Noun

ab

1. father

Scots

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ab/

Noun

ab (plural abs)

1. (Orkney) impediment, hindrance, objection.

Verb

ab (simple past abed)

1. (Orkney) to hinder

References

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

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

ab m (genitive singular aba, plural abachan)

1. Alternative form of aba

Sumerian

Romanization

ab

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

Turkish

Alternative forms

• âb

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

ab (definite accusative abı, plural ablar)

1. (obsolete, poetic) water

Declension

Derived terms

References

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

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from German aber (“but”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ab/

Conjunction

ab

1. but.

Welsh

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ab/

Prefix

ab

1. A patronymic indicator; son of.

Usage notes

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

Antonyms

• ach
• ferch

References

• 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

Wolof

Article

ab

1. a/an (singular indefinite article)

Usage notes

Precedes the noun.