abase

Meaning

To lower, as in condition in life, office, rank, etc., so as to cause pain or hurt feelings; to degrade, to depress, to humble, to humiliate.
To lower physically; to depress; to cast or throw down; to stoop.
(obsolete) To lower in value, in particular by altering the content of alloys in coins; to debase.

humiliate

lower oneself

quiten

shoot dead

humble oneself

make a stroke

render abject

Pronounced as (IPA)

/əˈbeɪs/

Inherited from Middle English

Cognate with Old French

Cognate with Catalan

Cognate with Occitan

Cognate with Spanish

In summary

From Late Middle English abaishen, abashen, abaisse, abassen, abesse, abessen (“to be upset; to embarrass; to surprise; to confound; to bend down, stoop; to abase, degrade, disgrace”), from Middle French abaisser, from Old French abaissier, abessier (“to prostrate oneself; to lower, reduce”) (also compare Old French esbahir (“to amaze”), Vulgar Latin abbassiāre (“to lower”)), from a- (“prefix indicating movement towards something”) (from Latin ad (“toward, to”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd (“at, to”)) + baissier (“to lower”) (from Medieval Latin bassus (“short of stature, low; base”), possibly from Ancient Greek βᾰ́σῐς (básis, “foot; base, foundation”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step”)). The spelling of the English word has been influenced by base, thus ostensibly analyzable as a- (“towards”) + base. There exist verb cognates in galloromance languages such as Catalan abaixar (“lower; abase”) and Occitan abaissar, and similar word construction in other romance languages as Spanish abajo (“down, downstairs; below”).

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