abuse -
noun (Drugs) (People and
Society ) Illegal or excessive use of a drug; the misuse of any substance, especially for its stimulant effects. In the context of human relationships, physical (especially
sexual ) maltreatment of another person. Etymology: These are not so much new senses of the word as specializations of context;
abuse has meant 'wrong or improper use, misapplication, perversion' since the sixteenth century, but in the second half of the twentieth century
has been used so often in the two contexts mentioned above that this is becoming the dominant use. History and Usage:
Abuse was first used in relation to drugs in the early sixties;
by the seventies it was usual for it to be the second element in compounds such as alcohol
abuse, drug
abuse, and solvent
abuse, and
soon afterwards with a human object as the first word: see
child+abuse . Interestingly it is not idiomatic to form similar compounds for other types of
abuse in its traditional sense: the
abuse of power rather than 'power
abuse', for example. This is one way in which the language continues to
differentiate the
traditional use from the more specialized one, although there have been some recent exceptions (a tennis player
who throws his racquet about in anger or frustration can now
be cautioned for racquet
abuse, for example). This is a setback for the campaign against increasing heroin
abuse among the young in all parts of the country.
Sunday Times 9 Dec. 1984, p.
3 Just over 30 per cent of the girls questioned
said they
had tried solvent
abuse. Daily Express 20 Aug. 1986, p.
2 Asked why she continued diagnosing
abuse after three appeals from other agencies to stop because they could not cope, she replied: 'With hindsight, at the time we were trying to do our best for them. In the event, with some
children ,
we were sadly unable to do that.' Guardian 14 July 1989, p. 2
