One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
(of a muscle) move (a limb or other part of the body) towards the midline of the body or towards another part.‘the main function of pectorals is to adduct the arms’The opposite of abduct
- ‘Then, isometrically contract the pectoral muscle, attempting to adduct the arm.’
- ‘Two possible effective responses would have been to flex the knee on the side of the higher foot, or to have adducted one leg and abducted the other.’
- ‘The affected arm is flexed at the elbow and adducted against the side of the body.’
- ‘Is it the oblique eye muscles or the superior or inferior recti that adduct the eye?’
- ‘A recent consensus document suggests that the arm should not be extended behind the back or adducted in an extreme position for a substantial amount of time.’
Mid 19th century: back-formation from late Middle English adduction, from late Latin adductio(n-) ‘bringing forward’, from the verb adducere ‘bring in’ (see adduce).
The product of an addition reaction between two compounds.‘a stable, covalent adduct of enzyme and substrate DNA results’
- ‘Rodents eating unfried pancakes had only one-tenth that concentration of acrylamide adducts.’
- ‘It has been known for some time that smoking can give rise to acrylamide in human red cells that forms adducts with haemoglobin.’
- ‘Under these irradiation conditions, another major class of oxidative damage occurs, namely the formation of covalent protein-DNA adducts.’
- ‘Moreover, some photoactivable compounds can also produce bulky adducts.’
- ‘In rat liver, it has been shown that tamoxifen forms covalent DNA adducts, implying a genotoxic mechanism for its carcinogenicity in this tissue.’
1940s: from German Addukt (blend of Addition and Produkt).
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