abyss English · revision 2401

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /əˈbɪs/ ''(UK)''; /əˈbɪs/, /æˈbɪs/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|abissus]],^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) [[bor|la-lat|abyssus|t=bottomless pit]],^(Etymonline)^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995) [[der|grc|ἄβυσσος|tr=ábussos|t=bottomless]],^(Etymonline)^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) [[af|grc|ἀ-|βυσσός|tr1=a-|tr2=bussós|t1=without|t2=bottom (of the sea)]].^(Etymonline)^(AHD)^(RHWU) Greek ''bussós'' may be related to ''báthos'' “depth”,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1995)^(MW Collegiate) though its origin is uncertain.^(Etymonline) English first took the word through French as ''abime'' and ''abysm'';^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) ''abyss'' is a more learned re-Latinized form.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The great deep of the old cosmogonies: the primal chaos, the depths of the earth, the infernal pit.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) The OED's first quotation is from 1398;^(OED 1989) Etymonline dates the Latin form ''abyssus'' to the late 14th century,^(Etymonline) Random House dates the word to 1350–1400,^(RHWU) and Barnhart dates the form ''abyss'' to 1534.^(Barnhart 1995)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the Septuagint, Greek ''abussos'' translated the Hebrew word for the original chaos, and in the New Testament it was used for Hell,^(Etymonline) which is why the earliest English sense is cosmological and religious.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) From the 1630s the word was used of any seemingly bottomless gulf or chasm,^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) and figuratively of immeasurable intellectual or moral depths.^(OED 1989)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) The OED notes five historical variants, of which ''abyss'' became the ordinary form and ''abysm'' survived as archaic or poetic.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1398 – the great deep, primal chaos, the infernal pit.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1534 – the form ''abyss''.^(Barnhart 1995)

+ * 1619 – figurative use.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1639 – any bottomless or unfathomable gulf, chasm or void.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+ * c1860 – verb, to swallow up as in an abyss.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An immeasurably deep gulf, chasm or space.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Something profound or unfathomable, such as a vast stretch of time or an intellectual or moral depth.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(mythology)'' The primal chaos of the ancient cosmogonies, out of which the world was formed; also the underworld or hell.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(heraldry)'' The centre of an escutcheon.^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[abyssal]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[abysmal]]

+ * [[abysm]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}