Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as abuse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Abuse.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Abusage first appeared in the 16th century as a general synonym of abuse, but it fell into disuse after just a couple of centuries. The word reemerged in the language with a new grammar-specific sense after Eric Partridge published a book on grammar titled Usage and Abusage in 1942.

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Examples

  • The Grammarphobia Blog » Blog Archive » When abusage becomes usage

    The Grammarphobia Blog » Blog Archive » When abusage becomes usage 2010

  • On a different note, I was amused by another example of the President's, er, novel abusage of English: In a chat with broadcast-news directors this week, he said of his Social Security tours "if you're trying to influence opinion, the best way to do it is to travel hard around the country and give the people their dues."

    languagehat.com: THE CRACK. 2005

  • On a round table, the velvet cover of which showed marks of usage and abusage, there were scattered books and writing materials; and my editorial instinct suddenly recognized, with a thrill of apprehension, the loose leaves of an undoubted manuscript.

    Stories in Light and Shadow Bret Harte 1869

  • With all their profundity and gravitas, they have striven hard to sanitize all abusage in application yet, pitiably, they seemed to have been overwhelmed by the brutality of the crisis

    unknown title 2009

  • This site www. teatromimo.com to communicate about the problem of alcohol abusage amongst youth, was done on iweb.

    Discussions: Message List - root 2009

  • You also need to bear in mind that staff using Facebook is the pleasant face of web usage or abusage.

    Muti 2009

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