Other forms: abased
To abase is to humble somebody, or to lower yourself. Abase himself before them, abased and humiliated, abase yourself.
The reflexive is the commonest use, and it means grovelling rather than modesty. It is formal and biblical in flavour. Note debase, which is about quality rather than dignity, and base, meaning low, beneath both.
1verbabaseTo humble somebody, or to lower yourself.
“He refused to abase himself by begging his old boss for a job.”
abase is a humbling.
From Old French abaissier, to lower, from a plus bas, low, from Latin bassus.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷem-
Ancient Greek
βᾰ́σῐς — foot; base, foundation
Medieval Latin
bassus — short of stature, low; base
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂éd — at, to
Latin
ad — toward, to
Old French
abaissier
Middle French
abaisser
Middle English
abaishen
English, today
abase
Built from
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- (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 (“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 + base. There exist verb cognates in Gallo-Romance languages such as Catalan abaixar (“lower; abase”) and Occitan abaissar, and similar word construction in other romance languages as Spanish abajo (“down, downstairs; below”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA