abstersion

Definition

Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging.

Etymology

From Middle English abstersioun, from either Old French or Medieval Latin abstertion, from Latin abstersus, past participle of abstergēo (“I wipe off or away”).

Example Sentences

• "Waverley ... was offered the patriarchal refreshment of a bath for the feet ... He was not, indeed, so luxuriously attended upon this occasion as the heroic travellers in the Odyssey; the task of ablution and abstersion being performed, not by a beautiful damsel, trained To chafe the limb, and pour the fragrant oil, but by a smoke-dried skinny old Highland woman, who did not seem to think herself much honoured by the duty imposed upon her..."