Origin of the word
Abduction is from the Latin word ‘abdūctus’, which is the past participle of the word ‘abdūcere’. The first known use was in 1765.
Examples
One of the most notorious abduction cases in the US took place in 1932. On 12th May that year the body of a baby, Charles Lindbergh Jr., was found six weeks after he was abducted from his crib. The event was termed at the time ‘The Crime of the Century’. The father of the child was the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh who made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.
A Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann was abducted by agents of the Israeli Secret Service from Argentina in 1960. He was put on trial for his crimes in Israel in 1962. He was found guilty and hanged.
On July 10th, a 20-year-old British model called Chloe Ayling attended what she thought was to be a photo shoot in Milan, Italy. Upon arriving at the venue, the woman was attacked by two men, drugged and abducted. She was placed in the boot of a car and transported for over 100 miles to a village near the French border. The kidnappers eventually released the woman after she told them she was the mother of a two-year-old child. The purpose of the abduction was allegedly to sell the woman in an online auction if a ransom of $300,000 was not paid. Ms Ayling is now back home with her family in the UK.
Definition
Taking someone away against his or her will using a degree of force.
View the full definition in the Macmillan Dictionary.
