abandonware

From abandon + -ware.

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

abandonware (countable and uncountable, plural abandonwares)

1. (software, chiefly video games) A software product that is no longer updated or maintained, or whose copyright is no longer defended or which is no longer marketed even by the company who made it.
   • 1996 October 12, John Hentsch, “Re: Converting file areas (one more time)”, in alt.bbs.wildcat‎^[2] (Usenet), retrieved 8 February 2017, message-ID <ff1_9610122110@mb.fidonet.org>:

     RR> Never heard of Wildscan. Is it shareware or is there a^[sic] evaluation
     RR> version available?
     It's abandonware ala Joe Martin inc.:)

   • 2014, Aaron Schwabach, Internet and the Law: Technology, Society, and Compromises, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 1:

     Abandonware is software that is no longer being sold or supported by its author, copyright owner, or licensed distributor. Software that is still being sold, but no longer supported, is sometimes also referred to as abandonware.

   • 2017, Paper accepted, toolkit abandoned., “Paper accepted, toolkit abandoned.”, in Department of Digital Design and Information Studies‎^[3], Aarhus, Denmark, archived from the original on 15 October 2025, page 1, column 2:

     Such toolkits developed in research projects are deemed to end as abandonware where the authors stop working on it and reported bugs will not get fixed after the associated paper was accepted.

• → Dutch: abandonware
• → Italian: abandonware
• → Polish: abandonware
• → Spanish: abandonware
• → French: abandonware

• announcementware
• free software
• public domain
• vaporware

Borrowed from English abandonware.

abandonware m (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. (software) abandonware

• “abandonware” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

Borrowed from English abandonware.

abandonware m (plural abandonwari)

1. (software) abandonware

Unadapted borrowing from English abandonware. First attested in 2000.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /aˈban.dɔn.wɛr/
• Rhymes: -andɔnwɛr
• Syllabification: a‧ban‧don‧ware

abandonware m inan

1. (software) abandonware (software product that is no longer updated or maintained, or whose copyright is no longer defended or which is no longer marketed even by the company who made it)
   • 2019, Łukasz Koźbiał, “ABANDONWARE W ŚWIETLE PRAWA AUTORSKIEGO – UWAGI OGÓLNE”, in Małgorzata Babula‎^[4], archived from the original on 20 January 2023:

      […], a które to cechy ewentualnie umożliwiałyby kwalifikację danego programu komputerowego do kategorii abandonware.

      […], which traits could potentially allow for the possibility to qualify the given program as abandonware.

Unadapted borrowing from English abandonware.

abandonware m (plural abandonwares)

1. (software) abandonware

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.