Abject

Abject is an adjective used to describe something that is extremely bad, severe, or degrading. It can refer to a condition that is utterly hopeless or wretched, such as abject poverty or abject misery. It can also describe attitudes or actions that are completely without pride or dignity, as in an abject apology or an abject surrender. In each sense, abject signals a sense of being thrown down, cast off, or demeaned.

The word derives from Old French abject, from Latin abiectus, the past participle of abicere, meaning “to throw away” or “to cast off.” The figurative sense of being cast aside or degraded developed in English to describe extreme social, moral, or emotional states.

Abject is a strong, often morally charged term. It is commonly used with nouns referring to conditions (poverty, misery, failure), to describe humiliating behavior, or to intensify adjectives describing substandard quality. The related noun abjection refers to the state of being cast off or degraded, and the broader concept of abjection has been used in philosophy and literary theory to denote the visceral experience of rejection or the boundary between self and others.