ad absurdum, adv. and adj.
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Forms:
16– ad absurdum, 19– ad absurdem.
Etymology:
< classical Latin ad to (see ad- prefix) + absurdum, use as noun of neuter of absurdus absurd adj., in various post-classical Latin renderings of ancient Greek ἡ εἰς ἄτοπον ἀπαγωγή reduction to the absurd (Euclid). Compare later reductio ad absurdum n.With deduction ad absurdum (see quot. 1656 at sense A.) compare post-classical Latin deductio ad absurdum:With reduction ad absurdum (see quotations 1659 at sense A., 1985 at sense A.) compare later reductio ad absurdum n.(Show Less)
Post-classical Latin ad absurdum is apparently attested earliest in the following longer phrase in an English context:
1629 L. Andrewes XCVI Serm. 630
Then, to prove it, He proceeds, abducendo ad absurdum.
1673 M. Poole Seasonable Apol. for Relig. 48,
I am very apt to believe, that one principal reason why God suffers such abominable wickednesses..to break forth is, that it might be a divine deductio ad absurdum, that by the dismal effects of irreligion, the worst of men might be forc't to see the excellency and necessity of Religion.
1715 E. Halley in Philos. Trans. 1714–16
(Royal Soc.)
29 343
The Method of Exhaustions, by a Deductio ad Absurdum.
A. adv.
To the point of absurdity; so as to demonstrate that the consequence of making a particular assumption is something absurd or contradictory; (also more generally) to an absurd or extreme degree. Cf. reductio ad absurdum n.
1656 J. Evelyn Ess. 1st Bk. T. Lucretius Carus De Rerum Natura 146
This our Carus refells by a plain deduction ad absurdum.
1659 O. Walker Some Instr. Art Oratory i. 6
Suppositions and Reduction ad absurdum, are diligently to be sought out.
1734 G. Berkeley Analyst §25.41
Why any other apagogical Demonstration, or Demonstration ad absurdum should be admitted.
1787 J. Rogers Dialogues between Students at College iv. 89
These are arguments ad absurdum.
1857 G. G. Scott Remarks Secular & Domest. Archit. xi. 240
A mere piece of idle purism readily reducible ad absurdum.
1900 Westm. Gaz. 26 May 3/3,
I have composed for your irresistible museum of chess freaks an example of pinning ad absurdum.
1937 J. P. Marquand Late George Apley xvi. 191
This statement of George Apley's..reduced the situation ad absurdum, since Ransome could no longer be considered as a serious possibility.
1985 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 50 368
So it remains to prove (+), which we do by reduction ad absurdum.
2003 Fangoria Oct. 73/2
The way he sneers at Nolan's suggestion that he may have learned anything from watching Citizen Kane or the films of John Ford ad absurdum.
B. adj. (attrib.).
Designating a method of demonstrating the falsity of a hypothesis by showing that the consequence of assuming it to be true is something absurd or contradictory; relating to or characteristic of such a hypothesis or demonstration.
1809 London Med. & Surg. Spectator Jan. 45
The ad absurdum extreme of inference from Brown's fundamental datum would be the reduction of all medicines into one.
1836 T. Wyse Educ. Reform I. i. 214
The professed employment of the ‘ad absurdum’ argument.
1861 Times 28 Dec. 7/2
An ad absurdum reduction of the doctrine.
1926 Jrnl. Hygiene 25 344
We attempted to settle the matter by a resort to the ad absurdum method.
2006 J. D. Bleich Bioethical Dilemmas II. i. 54
The statement is made in an ad absurdum vein.