Learn English – Abolition vs. Abolishment

derivational-morphologymeaningnounssuffixesword-choice

At times I have caught myself writing the noun form of abolish as "abolishment" and then pausing before realizing it should really be "abolition". Even as I type my spellchecker tells me that "abolishment" is wrong, but I know it isn't, it's just rarely used. The website grammarist has this to say

Abolishment vs. abolition
Abolishment appears in many dictionaries and is not considered incorrect, but abolition is preferred in all modern varieties of English. Both nouns mean the act of doing away with something, and neither has any meanings it does not share with the other.

Both words date from the early 16th century (soon after abolish came
to English from French roots), but abolition has always been more
common, and it now appears about ten times as often as abolishment.
Some writers reserve abolishment for senses unrelated to slavery, but
the distinction is unnecessary.

Nevertheless, I would like to know why the most common noun form is abolition. If I look at other verbs ending -ish it seems that the suffix -ment is preferred to make nouns.

  • abolish+ -ment (rare)
  • accomplish+ -ment
  • astonish+ -ment
  • banish+ -ment
  • establish+ -ment
  • demolish+ -ment (but that's considered archaic)
  • malnourish+ -ment
  • vanish + -ment

Curiously, Oxford Online Dictionaries lists only the noun abolishment in its entry for abolish, although it does have a separate entry for abolition. Is there a reason for this?

  • Why was/is the term abolition preferred to abolishment?
  • Considering the very many verbs that ending in -ish, why is the noun form abolition?

(I know "why" questions are nigh impossible to answer but I tend to see patterns and aboli+ -tion appears to be an exception)

Best Answer

It is most likely that "abolition" is the more common form due in large part to its association with the "abolition movement".

France was one of the earlier countries to abolish slavery within its borders, and Société des amis des Noirs was one active group in the movement in France.

The picture on that web page refers to (pardon my French) L'Assemblée Nationale pour L'Abolition de la Traite des Noirs and is dated 1790. Clearly "abolition" was the preferred term in France, and that preference would have transferred to England.

Adresse A Assemblee Nationale pour L'Abolition de la Traite des Noirs

Further, those advocating abolition in England and the US were "abolitionists". It would have been a mouthfull to call them "abolishmentists".

The main reason one might choose "abolishment" over "abolition" (aside from the subtle difference in meaning) is that "abolition" is associated with the movement to end slavery, and thus might be confusing or distracting when used to refer to a different process. But this confusion is not likely in native English speakers, unless the context contributes to the confusion.

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