Etymologically
Log in

abyssus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:38. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [aˈbys.sʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [aˈbis.sus][1]

Forms

abyssus f (genitive abyssī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”), with λίμνη (límnē, “pool”) understood.[2][3][4] The Greek has the privative prefix ἀ- (a-).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears first in Church writers and the Vulgate, as in Genesis.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It was a Church Latin word for a bottomless pit or abyss, and in the Vulgate the deep waters of Genesis, the place of the dead, and the hell where the wicked are confined.[2][5] Georges records the sense of the immeasurable expanse of the universe.[5] Isidore says the abyss is an impenetrable depth of waters, or the caves of hidden waters from which springs flow.[6]

In medieval Latin it was also the depth of the sea, the sea itself, and hell.[7][8] British writers sometimes declined it in the fourth declension and used it of deep pits and ocean depths.[9] English abyss is recorded in the late 14th century in the Latin form abyssus.[4]

Timeline

  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the deep and of hell.[2][3]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore defines it.[6][3]
  • late 14th century – English abyss is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin) A bottomless pit, an abyss.[2][1]
  2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The deep, the sea; the underworld; hell.[2][7]
  3. (Medieval Latin) The depths of the sea.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press