Charles Sanders Peirce wrote,

Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. It is the only logical operation which introduces any new idea; for induction does nothing but determine a value, and deduction merely evolves the necessary consequences of a pure hypothesis. Deduction proves that something must be; Induction shows that something actually is operative; Abduction merely suggests that something may be.

Peirce, C.S. (1958). The Collected Works of Charles Sanders Peirce, Volume 5, page 172, Harvard UniversityPress.