1520s, title given in France to "every one who wears an ecclesiastical dress" [Littré, quoted in OED], especially one having no assigned ecclesiastical duty but acting as a private tutor, et [..]

Literally translated, the word means abbot and in fact, abbé can refer to this church official. However, the title abbé was also given to those who completed the ecclesiastical curriculum in the lycée. For example, for the famous revolutionary abbé Sieyès, the title was merely a distinction as he was definitely not an abbot.

(n) a French abbot

<person> A German mathematician and physicist, professor at Jena, and inventor of much optical apparatus at the Zeiss works. His inventions include the apochromatic objective, the compensating ocular, the Abbe condenser, a well corrected oil-immersion achromatic condenser, the immersion objective, Abbe apertometre, Abbe refractometre, and the [..]

<person> A German physicist, 1840-1905. See: Abbe's condenser. (05 Mar 2000)

<person> A U.S. Surgeon, 1851-1928. See: Abbe flap, Abbe operation. (05 Mar 2000)

A hypocoristic form of the male given names Abraham, Albin and Albert.

Variant of Abe 2.