abstersion

plural abstersions

1. archaiccountableuncountableAct of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging.First known use First attested around 1350 to 1470.

   1 more example

   Waverley ... was offered the patriarchal refreshment of a bath for the feet ... He was not, indeed, so luxuriously attended upon this occasion as the heroic travellers in the Odyssey; the task of ablution and abstersion being performed, not by a beautiful damsel, trained To chafe the limb, and pour the fragrant oil, but by a smoke-dried skinny old Highland woman, who did not seem to think herself much honoured by the duty imposed upon her...

   1814, Sir Walter Scott, Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since