Basically, just like the title said. I try (try is key word) to help with software and bugs, and a lot of configure scripts have an --enable-debug flag... Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce:
USE="debug" FEATURES="nostrip" will enable debugging on ebuilds in general, and specifically with abiword, will add "-g -g -g" to CFLAGS. please read /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc about the "debug" use flag.