Ab

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A informal shortened name for an abdominal muscle, especially one of the muscles of the stomach area toned through exercise
2. Informal clipped term for a muscle in the stomach region, usually one that people work to strengthen with sit-ups or crunches
3. Casual shorthand referring to a muscle of the belly, most often used in the plural when talking about a toned midsection

Etymology: "Ab" as a noun is one of the more modest entries in the language: a plain abbreviation, not a word with a dramatic past. Its main sense is a shortening of "abscess," the swollen pocket of pus that forms in infected tissue. Clinical and informal writing trimmed the longer word, and the short form took hold in that setting as a convenient label. The other sense is more curious. Here the noun refers to the letter combination "ab" itself, the first pairing in the old spelling books, which were the primers children used to learn to read. "Ab" opened the sequence of two-letter syllables those books drilled, so its place in the alphabet of teaching gave it a second life as a name for the first step in learning letters.

Synonyms: abs