English

Noun

abhorrer ‎(plural abhorrers)

1. One who abhors. [Early 17^th century.]^[1]
   • 1839, Jeremy Bentham, John Bowring, editor, The works of Jeremy Bentham, now first collected; under the superintendence of his executor, John Bowring, page 450:

     Be they what they may, the barbarities of the Catholics of those times had their limits: but of this abhorrer of Catholic barbarities, the barbarity has, in respect of the number of intended victims, no limits other than those of time.

   • 1948, Joseph Wood Krutch, Henry David Thoreau, page 236:

     The “even be killed” is not comic, for Thoreau the individualist must have found it in theory as difficult to imagine himself dying for others as Thoreau the abhorrer of violence found it difficult to imagine himself killing another individual.

   • 1959, Dorothy Sterling, Mary Jane, page 83:

     Hate, detester, abhorrer. Enemy, ennemi. With her tongue curled over her lip, she copied them in her notebook, then made them into sentences.

   • 1970, Robert Leckie, Warfare, page 128:

     Thus, chiefly through the efforts of this lover of peace and abhorrer of war, the art of maiming and killing became ever more efficient.

   • 1999, Guy A. J. Tops et alios, Thinking English Grammar: to honour Xavier Dekeyser, page 59:

     The problem of usage comes in for abhorrer in various ways: There are 63 entries with the root abhor, including 3 abhorrer, 17 abhorrence.

2. (historical, sometimes capitalized) A nickname given in the early 17^th century to signatories of addresses of a petition to reconvene parliament, addressed to Charles II. [Early 17^th century.]^[1]
   • 1890, Thomas de Quincey, David Masson, editor, The Collected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, page 389:

     Pretty much as Lincoln is thus supposed to arise out of the word fleas, so (according to Rapin) do the words Whig and Tory arise out of addresser and abhorrer […]

   • 1949, Felix Morley, The Power in the People, page 76:

     Whether “Petitioner” or “Abhorrer”, his opinion was asked and use of his undistinguished name was requested […]

   • 1966, Robert Gourlay, General Introduction to Statistical Account of Upper Canada=page=1:

     He might be assimilated to a madman, but the honourable Gentleman himself was an abhorrer, and an abhorrer could not reason.

   • 1999, Guy A. J. Tops et alios, Thinking English Grammar: to honour Xavier Dekeyser, page 59:

     The terms petitioners and abhorrers in this context were later superseded by Whig and Tory.

Related terms

• abhor
• abhorred
• abhorrence
• abhorrency
• abhorrent
• abhorrently
• abhorrible
• abhorring

References

1. 1 2 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 4

Anagrams

• harborer

French

Etymology

Middle French.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.bɔ.ʁe/

Verb

abhorrer

1. to abominate, to abhor, to loathe

Conjugation

Middle French

Etymology

[1327] Borrowed from Latin abhorrēre, present active infinitive of abhorreō. Displaced earlier avourrir.

Verb

abhorrer

1. to abhor

Conjugation

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.