abject
adj.adj. feeling or showing a very low level of self-respect. It describes someone who is so ashamed or defeated that they cannot stand to look at themselves.
adj. characterised by a state of extreme humiliation, degradation, or lack of self-respect. Often describes a person's emotional state or a situation of total defeat.
He felt abject after losing the election.
The defeated army returned to the city in abject silence, their heads bowed in shame.
The protagonist's journey is one of abject poverty to eventual self-reliance, a narrative arc that explores the psychological toll of systemic neglect.
PIE word *h₂epó The adjective is derived from Late Middle English abiect, abject (adjective) [and other forms], from Middle French abject (modern French abject, abjet (obsolete)), and from its etymon Latin abiectus (“abandoned; cast aside”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abiciō (“to discard, throw away”), from ab- (prefix meaning ‘away from’) + iaciō (“to throw”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)). The noun is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Italian abiecto (obsolete), abietto * Late Latin abiectus (“humble or poor person”, noun) * Spanish abjecto (obsolete), abyecto
From Late Middle English abjecten (“to cast out, expel”) [and other forms], from abiect, abject (adjective) (see etymology 1). Sense 3 (“of a fungus: to give off (spores or sporidia)”) is modelled after German abschleudern (“to give off forcefully”).