European chum I'd abandoned by church (6)

I believe the answer is:

french

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'european' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'chum i'd abandoned by church' is the wordplay.
'chum' becomes 'friend' (I've seen this before).
'abandoned' suggests deleting specific letters.
'by church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation. I am not sure about the 'by' bit.).
'friend' with 'id' taken away is 'fren'.
'fren'+'ch'='FRENCH'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for french that I've seen before include "A Romance language" , "eg Marie Antoinette" , "-- Polish; -- stick" , "Glass door" , "Significant language of Belgium, Switzerland and Canada" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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