abusage

English

Etymology

First appeared in Middle English, c. 1450–1475, meaning “sexual misconduct”[1] (cf. abuse (“forcing of undesired sexual activity”)), later in the 16th century as a general synonym of abuse, but fell into disuse after just a couple of centuries. The word re-emerged with a new grammar-specific sense after Eric Partridge published a book on grammar titled Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English (a pun on "use and abuse") in 1942.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /əˈbjuːsɪd͡ʒ/

Noun

abusage (countable and uncountable, plural abusages)

(obsolete) Abuse. [Attested from the mid 16^th century until the mid 17^th century.][2]
Improper or incorrect use of language. [First attested in the mid 20th century.][2]
A stickler for the rules of grammar, Mrs. Walker cringes when she encounters any abusage by the students in her freshman English class.

References

“abūsaǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abusage”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 10.

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[1] “abūsaǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[SOED-2] Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abusage”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 10.