[ Note from moderator: It is time to close this thread. Further discussion of the linguistic part of Michael's query should happen away from the list. Thanks to contributors. ] Michael Barr wrote:
I am NOT about to change a word that has apparently existed for over 50 years just because it is not particularly meaningful.
"aboutissement" existed for over 50 years of course, but the translation "abutment" is, (at least in the references given in these postings, including the translation of the grothendieck-serre correspondence) much more recent, it seem that all of its occurrences are from the second millennium, or very close. On the other hand, we have learned in these postings that in the 1980's and before, the word "limit" (and not "abutment') was used for what a spectral sequence converges to. An authority as Peter Hilton used "limit". There are a lot of well established words in mathematics which are not particularly meaningful, but the difference with "abutment" is precisely that they are well established.