A substance or agent that causes abortion or miscarriage; a drug or material that terminates pregnancy.
From Latin 'abortus' (miscarriage) + 'faciens' (making, from 'facere' to make), literally 'thing that makes abortion,' structured like 'magnificent' (making great).
This is a perfect example of Latin's productive powers—scholars could coin new technical terms by combining established roots, and 'abortifacient' became the standard medical term for pregnancy-terminating substances across multiple European languages.
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