Literary notes about abettor (AI summary)
In literature, the term abettor is employed to denote not only a person who actively assists in wrongdoing but also a broader range of supporters or enablers in various contexts. It appears in settings denouncing conspiracies or criminal acts, as when someone is castigated as the "aider and abettor" of a villainous deed ([1], [2], [3]), while at other times it describes the underlying support for political tyranny or social ills, such as being the facilitator behind urbanization and oppressive regimes ([4], [5]). Its usage is equally flexible in historical narratives and ironic commentaries, ranging from the explicit attribution of blame in treacherous plots ([6], [7], [8]) to the more nuanced portrayal of a character who inadvertently supports another’s actions ([9], [10], [11]).
- "I'M A RUSTLER AND A THIEF, AM I?" V. AN AIDER AND ABETTOR VI.
— from Mavericks by William MacLeod Raine - "What, madam, would you make yourself the abettor of crime—come between a felon and the law which protects honest people from thieves and murderers?"
— from The Infidel: A Story of the Great Revival by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon - “And you think that to save such villains as you I will become an abettor of their plot, an accomplice in their crimes?”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Reason Three There is one other abettor of urbanization that we must not overlook: the bewitching power of the money economy.
— from Down with the Cities! by Tadashi Nakashima - It was the friend of human liberty and the abettor of tyranny.
— from A Short History of Monks and Monasteries by Alfred Wesley Wishart - I am about to drag his murderer into the light; why hang upon his skirts and compel me to expose you to public horror as his abettor?
— from It Is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade - Chief Justice Scroggs showed himself an eager abettor of the miserable wretch who swore away men's lives for the sake of the notoriety it gave him.
— from The Leading Facts of English History by D. H. (David Henry) Montgomery - If Jones had been a pirate France would either have made short work of him, or else have incurred the odium of humanity as an abettor of piracy.
— from Commodore Paul Jones by Cyrus Townsend Brady - But since the publication of "The Footprints of the Creator," by the lamented Hugh Miller, it appears in front as a fast friend and abettor.
— from The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880 by Various - F o mẻntat ó re, a comforter, a maintainer, a strengthner, an abettor.
— from Queen Anna's New World of Words; or, Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues by John Florio - But her grand playmate, the confidant and abettor of all her games, was a placid motherly cat, which had grown up with Katie.
— from An Isle in the Water by Katharine Tynan
