ABA 
tended to reprefent a fquare flat tile laid over an urn, 
or a balket; and the invention is aferibed to Calimachus, 
an ingenious ftatuary of Athens, who, it is faid, adopted 
it on obferving a fmall balket, covered with a tile, over 
the root of an acanthus plant, which grew on the grave 
of a young lady ; the plant (hooting tip, encompafled the 
balket all around, till meeting with the tile, it curled 
back in the form of fcrolls : Calimachus palling by, took 
the hint, and immediately executed a capital on this plan ; 
reprefenting the tile by the abacus, the leaves of the 
acanthus by the volutes or fcrolls, and the balket by the 
vafe or body of the capital. 
Abacus is alfo ufed by Scamozzi for a concave mould¬ 
ing in the capital of the Tufcan pedeltal. And the word 
is ufed by Palladio for other members which he deferibes. 
Alfo, in the ancient architecture, the fame term is ufed to 
denote certain compartments in the incrudation or lining of 
the walls of date-rooms, mofaic-pavements, and the like. 
There were abaci of marble, porphyry, jafper, alabader, 
and even glafs; varioully lhaped, as fquare, triangular, &c. 
Abacus Logisticus is a right-angled triangle, whofe 
fides, about the right angle, contain all the numbers from 
one to fixty ; and its area the products of each two of the 
Oppolite numbers. This is alfo called a canon of fexagefi- 
mals, and is no other than a multiplication-table carried to 
lixty both ways. 
Abacus & Palmul^, in the ancient mufic, denote 
the machinery by which the drings of the polypleftra, or 
indruments of many drings, were druck, with a pleftrum 
made of quills. 
Abacus Harmonious is ufed by Kircher for the 
ftrufture and difpolition of the keys of a mufical indru- 
ment, either to be touched with the hands or feet. 
Abacus, in geometry, a table or date upon which 
fchemes or diagrams are drawn. 
Abacus Major, in metallurgic operations, the name 
of a trough ufed in the mines, wherein the ore is waflied. 
ABADDON, is the name which St. John in the Reve¬ 
lation gives to the king of the locud, the angel of the bot- 
tomlefs pit. The infpired writer fays, this word is He¬ 
brew, and in Greek lignifies awoMvwv, i. e. a dedroyer. 
That angel-king is thought to be Satan : but M. le Clerc 
thinks with Dr. Hammond, that by the locud which came 
out of the abyfs, may be underdood the zealots and rob¬ 
bers, who miferably afflicted the land of Judea, and laid it 
in a manner wade, before Jerufalem was taken by the Ro¬ 
mans ; and that Abaddon, the king of the locud, may be 
John of Gifchala, who having treacheroudy left that town 
a little before it was furrendered to Titus, came to Jerufa¬ 
lem, where he foon headed part of the zealots, who ac¬ 
knowledged him as their king, whill't the red would not 
fubmit to him. Thisfubdivifion of the zealot party brought 
a thoufand calamities upon the Jews. 
ABADIR, a title w hich the Carthaginians.gave to gods 
of the fird order. In the Roman mythology, it is the 
name of a done which Saturn fwallowed, by the contri¬ 
vance of his wife Ops, believing it to be his new-born fon 
Jupiter: hence it ridiculoully became the object of reli¬ 
gious wordiip. 
ABAFEDE, a mountain in Egypt, the refidence, in 
antiquity, of the Egyptian magi; it was much revered 
by the Romans on their obtaining it, and was afterwards 
inhabited by Chridian devotees who lived in caves dug 
out of the rock. 
ABAFT, adv. \_abaftan, Sax.] afea-term, fignifyingthe 
hinder part of a fliip, or all thofe parts both within and 
without which lie towards the dern, in oppofition to 
afore. — Abaft, is alfo ufed as a prepolition, and lignifies 
further aft, or nearer the fern ; as, the barricade dands abaft 
the main-mad, i. e. behind it, or nearer the dern. 
ABAISANCE, /. [ abaifer , Fr. to deprefs, to bring 
down.] An aft of reverence, a bow. Obeyfance is con- 
lidered by Skinner as a corruption of abaifance , but is now 
univerfally ufed. 
ABAKA-khan, the 18th emperor of the Moguls, a 
Vol. I. No. j. 
ABA 5 
wife and clement prince. He reigned 17 years, and is by 
fome authors faid to have been a Chridian. It .may be 
admitted, indeed, that he joined with the Chridians in 
keeping the fead of Eader, in the city Hanadau, fome 
Ihort time before his death. But this is no proof of his 
Chridianity ; it having been common, in times of brother¬ 
ly love, for Chridians and Mahometans to join in keeping 
the fame feads, when each would compliment the other 
with doing honour to his folemnity. 
ABAKAN, a river falling into the Jenefei, near its 
fource in Afiatic RulTia, near which dands the town of 
Abakanlkoi. Lat. 53. 3. N. Ion. 94. 5. E. 
ABALA, a city of the tribe of Judah ; alfo a town of 
the Troglodytes in Africa, near the Red Sea. 
ABALASKOI, a town of Siberia. It is yet frequent¬ 
ed by pilgrims, on account of a datue, called the image of 
the Virgin Mary. Lat. 58. n. N. Ion. 68. 20. E. 
To ABALIENATE, v.a. \_abalieno , Lat.] To make 
that another’s which was our own before. A term of the 
civil law, not much ufed in common fpeech. 
AB ALIENATION, f [_abalienatio,'L 3 .t.~\ The aft of 
giving up one’s right to another perfon; or making over an 
edate, goods, or chattels, by fale, or due courfe of law. 
To ABANDON, v. a. \_abandonner, Fr. derived, ac¬ 
cording to Menage, from the Italian abandonare, which 
dignifies to forfake his colours; bandum [vexillum] defercre. 
Pafquier thinks it a coalition of a ban donner, to give up to 
a profeription ; in which fenfe we, at this day, mention 
the ban of the empire. Ban, in our own old dial'eft, dig¬ 
nifies a curfe ; and to abandon, if confidered as compounded 
between French and Saxon, is exaftly equivalent to dir is 
devovere.'] To give up, reiign, or quit ; often followed by 
the particle to. —Who is he do abandoned to fottilh credu¬ 
lity, as to think, that a clod of earth in a lack, may ever, by 
eternal fliaking, receive the fabric of man’s body >. Bentley. 
Todefert; to forfake: in an ill fenfe. To forfake, to leave. 
To ABANDON OVER, v. a. [a form of writing not 
ufual, perhaps not exaft.] To give up, to refign. 
Look on me as a man abandon'd o'er 
To an eternal lethargy of love; 
To pull and pinch, and wound me, cannot cure, 
And but didurb the quiet of my death. Dryden. 
ABANDONED, participle adj. Corrupted in thehigh- 
ed degree ; as, an abandoned wretch. In this fenfe, it is a 
contraction of a longer form, abandoned, or given up to 
wickednefs. 
ABANDONING, \_irom abandon. ] Deferting, forfaking. 
ABANDONMENT, f. \_abandonncment, Fr.] The act 
of abandoning ; the date of being abandoned. 
AB ANNITION, f. \_abanitio, Lat.] A banifhment for 
one or two years, for manflaughter. Obfolete. 
ABANO, a town of Padua in Italy, in the republic of 
Venice, much frequented on account of its warm baths. 
Lat. 43. 30. N. Ion. jo. 47. E. 
ABANTES, a people who came originally from 
Thrace, and fettled in Phoceca, a country of Greece, 
where they built a town which they called Aba, after 
the name of Abas their leader. The Abantes were a very 
warlike people, doling with their enemies, and fighting 
hand to hand, 
ABANTIAS, or Abantis, anciently a name of the 
illand Euboea in the Egean fea, extending along the coad 
of Greece, from the promontory Sunium of Attica to 
Theflaly, and feparated from Boeotiabya narrow drait 
called Euripus. The ifland was called Abantias, from.the 
Abantes, a people originally of Thrace, called by Homer 
wuricrB-eu Kc///.owfl£;, from wearing their hair long behind, 
having in a battle experienced the inconvenience of wearing 
long hair before. From cutting their hair before, they 
were called Curetes. 
ABAPTISTON, f. in furgery, [from « and (SW-rify,, 
immergo, to fink under.] the perforating part of the ipfiru- 
ment called a trepan. 
ABARA, a town in the Greater Armenia, under the 
C domiaioa 
