Other forms: abstractions
An abstraction is an idea considered apart from any real example. A useful abstraction, a mere abstraction, levels of abstraction.
In computing it is the central technique: hiding the detail of how something works so that the thing above it need not know. Calling something a mere abstraction is a criticism meaning it has lost touch with anything real.
1nounabstractionAn idea considered apart from any real example.
“Justice is just an abstraction until you see it done in a real courtroom.”
abstraction is an idea.
Latin abstractio comes from abstrahere, to draw away — abs, away, plus trahere, to pull.
Latin
abstrahō — draw away
Medieval Latin
abstrāctiō — separation
Middle French
abstraction
Middle English
abstraccyone
English, today
abstraction
From Middle English abstraccyone; either from Middle French abstraction or from Medieval Latin abstrāctiō (“separation”), from Latin abstrahō (“draw away”). Equivalent to abstract + -ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA