Abstersions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Acts of cleansing or washing away impurities; processes of purification or removal of contamination; rituals or practices intended to make something clean
2. Instances of thorough washing or rinsing to remove dirt or defilements; steps taken to purify or sanitize a person, object, or area; the act of cleansing by water or another cleansing agent
3. The performance of ablutions or cleansing procedures; the habitual or ritual act of making an area or organism free from impurities; deliberate actions to refresh or clear through washing or purification

Etymology: "Abstersions" is the plural of "abstersion", a noun for the act of wiping or washing something clean. Its ancestry runs through Latin "abstergēre", meaning "to wipe off or away", built from "ab-" ("away from") and "tergēre", "to wipe". The past participle "abstersus" gave Latin the noun "abstertion", and that form reached English in Middle English as "abstersioun", probably by way of either Old French or medieval Latin. The plural form "abstersions" simply refers to multiple acts of cleansing or purging, each one a distinct wiping away. The word stayed fairly specialised over the centuries, so it still feels more at home in medical or scholarly prose than in everyday speech. Its core picture is physical: a cloth moving across a surface to remove what clings to it.

Synonyms: cleansings, washings, purifications, ablutions, rinse

Antonyms: contaminations, pollutions, dirtyings, soiling, staining