Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

absit en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin absit (“let (him or her) be absent”), the third-person singular present active subjunctive of absum (“be absent”).

Meanings

  1. (UK) Formal permission to be away from a college for the greater part of the day or more.
    • The following week he wrot her. 'It is a most shameful thing that he should keep me on like this...I am awfully cross because now I am not able to come home for an absit [overnight leave] on Thursday which I very much wanted to do.' 2015, William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, →ISBN:
    • Another associated matter was the subject of a discussion, on one occasion only, on the effect of an absit on a student's residence if he used it to be away from Cambridge from Saturday to Monday 'as is allowed at at least one College'. 1983, W. W. Grave, Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, 1869-1969, page 53:
    • An exeat was needed to be away for the night and, in theory at least, an absit for the greater part of the day. 1992, Eric Lionel Mascall, Saraband: The Memoirs of E.L. Mascall, →ISBN, page 56:
    • In the evening, after some difficulty, he persuaded his tutor to give him an absit to sleep at Huntingdon that night, and drove over there after dinner in a fly with Egerton, Castleton, and Grey. 1868, George Charles L. Tottenham, Charlie Villars at Cambridge, page 198:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
absits Number=Plur lexicographic

absit en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

Borrowed from Amharic አብሲት (ʾäbsit, “proofing dough”).

Meanings

  1. A portion of fermenting dough diluted to a paste with water and then cooked.
    • An absit is not made, and the baking is carried out on an open hotplate. 2012, S P Cauvain, Breadmaking: Improving Quality, →ISBN, page 764:
    • The cooking gelatinizes the starch and makes the absit viscous. 2011, Elke Arendt, Fabio Dal Bello, Gluten-Free Cereal Products and Beverages, →ISBN, page 135:
    • A portion of the fermented paste may be mixed with three parts of water and boiled, resulting in an absit. 1987, Larry R. Beuchat, Food and Beverage Mycology, →ISBN, page 296:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
absits Number=Plur lexicographic