Abel, a well-known glossographer and historiographer, born at Castres in France in 1664. Upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes, he went first to Geneva, then to Franeker, where he finished his studies, and finally came to England, where he applied himself so as- siduously to the study of the English language, and made so great a proficiency therein, that he became an author of considerable note, and was employed in writing several periodical and political works. He was for many years concerned in a newspaper called the Post-boy, of which he had the principal management. He likewise published a monthly work entitled the Political State of Great Britain. He wrote a life of Queen Anne in folio, which is esteemed a very good chronicle of that period of the English history. But he is best known by a Dictionary and Grammar of the French language, which he compiled, and which are still reckoned good in their kind. He also wrote, or rather translated from the French of M. de Racine, the tragedy of Iphigenia, which he published under the title of The Victim. It was performed with success at Drury-Lane, and is very far from being a bad play. He died at Chelsea in 1729.

in Navigation, a kind of Flemish sloop, or small vessel of burden, having a boltsprit, a castle at each end, and a tall mast, chiefly fitted for the navigation of rivers, and in many of its parts resembling a smack.