Trending: ‘abject’

Abject cast off its normally low status in lookups during the State of the Union address, and for a time was among our most searched-for words, after President Trump used it in making the claim that the policies of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro were bringing his citizens into “abject poverty.”

Pres. Trump says: "We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom, and we condemn the brutality of Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty." #SOTU

— NewsChannel 8 | KTUL (@KTULNews) February 6, 2019

Abject may be defined as “sunk to or existing in a low state or condition,” “cast down in spirit,” or “expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit” (as in abject flattery).

Thou neither gauest me too much riches, nor too abject poverty, lest I shold either waxe proud, or grow more contemptible: but thou gavest me understanding and wil, whereby I should know and loue thee.
— A Paradise of Prayers, 1614