Abductions

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /æbˈdʌk.ʃn̩s/

Definitions

1. The act of forcibly taking someone away against their will
2. The illegal removal of a person, often used in the context of kidnapping
3. A process involving the capture of individuals, typically for illicit purposes or ransom

Etymology: The plural "abductions" is simply the plural of "abduction," so the story is really the story of its base. That base comes from Latin "abdūcere," meaning "to take or lead away," built from "ab" ("away") and "dūcere" ("to lead"). The same "dūcere" stands behind English words like "conduct," "produce," and "duke," so an abduction is, at root, a leading-away. Latin "abductio" meant "a robbing" or "an abduction," and English took the idea in its literal sense of carrying someone off by force. The word also turned up in physiology, where an abduction is a movement that draws a limb or body part away from the body's midline; that technical sense came through French, from Latin "abductus," the past participle of the same verb.

Synonyms: kidnappings, snatchings, forcible removals, capturings, seizures

Antonyms: returns, releases, liberations, restorations, rescues