ABU 
ABSURDNESS,A The quality of being abfurd; in- 
judicioufnefs; impropriety. Abfurdity is more frequently 
'ufed. 
ABSUS, /! in botany. See Cassia. 
ABSYRTUS, in the heathen mythology, the fon of 
AStaand Hypfea, and the brother of Medea. The latter 
running away with Jafpn, after her having aflifted him in 
carrying off the golden fleece, was purfned by her father ; 
when, to hop hisprogrefs, (lie tore Abfyrtus in pieces, and 
fcattered his limbs in his way. 
ABTHANES, a title of honour ufed by the ancient in¬ 
habitants of Scotland, whocalled their nobles thanes, which 
in the old Saxon lignifies king’s minijters ; and of rhefe the 
higher rank were llyled abtkanes, and thole of the lower 
under thanes. 
ABUCCO, Abocco, or Abocchi, a weight ufed in 
thekingdom of Pegu. One abucco contains 1teccalis; 
tw'o abuccos make a giro oragire; two giri, half a piza; 
and a piza weighs an hundred teccalis ; that is, two pounds 
five ounces the heavy weight, or three pounds nine ounces 
the light weight of Venice. 
ABUKESO, in commerce, the fame with Aslan. 
ABULFARAGIUS (Gregory,) fon to Aaron a phyfi- 
cian, born in 1226, in the city of Malatia, near the fource 
of the Euphrates in Armenia. He followed the profeflion 
of his father ; and praCtifed with great fuccefs, numbers 
of people coming from the moll remote parts to afle his ad¬ 
vice. However, he would hardly have been known at this 
time, had his knowledge been confined to phyfic : but he 
applied hirnfelf to the ftudyof the Greek, Syriac, and A- 
rabic languages, as well as philofophy and divinity; and he 
wrote a hiftory which does honour to his memory. It is 
written in Arabic, and divided into dynafties. It conlifts' 
of ten parts, being an epitome of univerfal hiftory from 
the creation of the world to his own time. Dr. Pocock 
publiflied it with a Latin tranflation in 1663 ; and added, 
by way of fupplement, a fliort continuation relating to the 
hiftory of the eaftern princes. 
ABUNA, the title given to the archbifhop or metropo¬ 
litan of Abyflinia. 
ABUNDANCE, fi. \_abondancc, Fr.] Plenty; a fenfe 
chiefly poetical. Great numbers. A great quantity. Ex¬ 
uberance, more than enough. 
ABUNDANT, adj. \abundans, Lat.] Plentiful. Exu¬ 
berant. Fully ftored. It is followed fometimes by in, 
commonly by with. —The w’orld began but fome ages be¬ 
fore thefe w'ere found out, and was abundant with all things 
at firft; and men not very numerous; and therefore were 
not put fo much to the ufe of their w its, to find out wavs 
for living commodioully. Burnet. —It is applied generally 
to things, fometimes toperfons.—The Lord, the I ord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-futferingand^fena'a^t in good- 
nefsand truth. Exod. xxxiv. 6 . 
Abundant Number, in arithmetic, is a number, the 
fum of whofe aliquot parts is greater than the number it- 
felf. Thus the aliquot parts of 12, being j, 2, 3, 4, and 
6, they make, when added together, 16. An abundant 
number is oppofed to a deficient number, or that which is 
greater than all its aliquot parts taken together; as ' 14, 
whofe aliquot parts are, 1, 2, and 7, which make no more 
than 10: and to a perfieB number, or one to which its ali¬ 
quot parts are equal; as 6, whofe aliquot parts are 1, 2, 
and 3. 
ABUNDANTLY, adv. In plenty.—Let the waters 
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. 
Gen. i. 20.—Amply, liberally, more than fufficiently.—He¬ 
roic poetry has ever been efteemed the greateft work of 
human nature. In that rank has Ariftotle placed it; and 
Longinus is fo full of the like exprellions, that he abun¬ 
dantly confirms the other's teftimony. Dryden. 
ABUNDANTIA, a heathen divinity, reprefented in 
ancient monuments under the figure of a woman with a 
pleafing afpeft, crov/ned with garlands of flowers, pour¬ 
ing all forts of fruit out of a horn which Hie holds in her 
right hand, and fcattering grain with her left, taken pro- 
A B Y jy 
mifcuoully from a flieaf of corn. On a medal of Trajan, 
Ihe is reprefented with two cornucopia;. 
ABURY, or Aubery, Wilts, near Marlborough- 
downs, noted lor the ftupendous remains of a Druidical 
temple, like Stonehenge, on Saliflmry plain. 
ABU SAID (Ebn Aljaptu), fultan of the Moguls, fuc- 
ceeded his father anno 717 of the hegira. He was the lad 
monarch of the race of Jcnghizkhan; and after his death, 
w hich happened the fame year that Tamerlane was born,, 
the empire was made a feene of blood and defolation. 
ABUS, in ancient geography, a river of Britain, formed 
by the confluence of the Ure, the Derwent, Trent, &c. 
falling into the German Sea between Yorkfliire and Lin- 
colnlhire, and forming the mouth of the Humber. 
To ABUSE, v. a. [ abutor , abu/us, Lat.] In abufe the: 
verb, s has the found of z\ in the noun, the common found. 
To make an ill ufe of. To violate; to defile. To de¬ 
ceive ; to impofe on. To treat with rudenefs; to reproach. 
Some praife at morning what they blame at night,. 
But always-think the lad opinion right. 
A mule by thefe is like a midrefs us’d, 
This hour Ihe’s idoliz'd, the next abus’d. Pope. 
Abuse, fi. The ill ufe of any thing. A corrupt prac¬ 
tice, bad cuflom. Seducement. Unjufl cenfure, rude re- 
proach, contumely: 
I dark in light expos’d 
To daily fraud, contempt, abufie, and wrong. Milton. 
ABUSER, fi. He that makes an ill ufe. lie that de¬ 
ceives.—Next thou, the abufier of thy prince’s ear. Denham. 
He that reproaches with rudenefs. A raviflier, a violater.. 
ABUSIVE;, adj. Pradtifing abufe. Containing abufe ; 
as anabulive lampoon. Deceitful; a fenfe little ufed, yet 
not improper.—It is verified by a number of examples, 
that w hatfoever is gained by an abufiive treaty, ought to be 
redored in integrum. Bacon. 
ABUSIVELY, adv. Improperly, by a wrong ufe. Re¬ 
proachfully. 
ABUSIVENESS, J. The quality of being abuli.ve;, 
foulnefs of language.- —-Pick Out of mirth, like ftones out 
of thy ground, profanenefs, filthinefs, abufivenefis. Herbert. 
To ABUT, v. n. obfolete. \_aboutir, to touch at the end, 
Fr.] To end at, to border upon-, to meet, or approach to, 
with the particle upon. —The Looes are two feveral cor¬ 
porations, didinguiflied by the addition of eaft and wed, 
abutting upon a navigable creek, and joined by a fairbridge. 
of many arches. Carew. 
ABUTILON, in botany. See Hibiscus, Mei.ochia, 
Malva, NaPAEA, SlDA. 
ABUTMENT, f. That which abuts, or borders up¬ 
on another. 
ABUTTAL, fi. Thebutting or boundaries, of any land. 
A writing declaring on what lands, highways, or other 
places, it does abut. 
ABYDOS, anciently a town built by the Milefians in 
Alia, on the Hellefpont, where it is fcarce a mile over, op- 
polite to Seftos on the European fide. Now' both called 
the Dardanelles. Abydos lay midway between Lampfa- 
cus and Ilium, famous for Xerxes’s bridge; and for the 
loves of Leander and Hero ; celebrated alfo for its oyders. 
As ydos waslikewife anciently an inland town of Egypt, 
between Ptolemais and Diofpolis Parva, towards Syrene j- 
famous for the palace of Memnon and the temple of Oli- 
ris. A colony of Milefians: and the only one in thecoun- 
trv into which the lingers and dancers were forbid to enter. 
This city, reduced to a village under the empire of Au- 
cruftus, now prefents to our view only an heap of ruins 
without inhabitants; but to the weft of thefe ruins is Hill 
found the celebrated tomb of Ifmandes. The entrance is 
under a portico lixty feet high, and fupported by two rows 
ofmaffy columns. The immoveable folidity of the edi¬ 
fice, the huge malfes. which compofe it, the hieroglyphics 
it is loaded with, ftamp it a work of the ancient Egyptians.. 
Beyondit is a temple 300. feet long and 145 wide. Upou 
entering; 
