abyssus Latin · revision 4543

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Vulgate|origins=grc ἄβυσσος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [aˈbys.sʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [aˈbis.sus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''abyssus''' ''f'' (genitive abyssī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|ἄβυσσος|tr=ábussos|t=bottomless]], with [[m|grc|λίμνη|tr=límnē|t=pool]] understood.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)^(Etymonline) The Greek has the privative prefix [[m|grc|ἀ-|tr=a-]].^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It appears first in Church writers and the Vulgate, as in Genesis.^(Georges 1913)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==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.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Georges records the sense of the immeasurable expanse of the universe.^(Georges 1913) Isidore says the abyss is an impenetrable depth of waters, or the caves of hidden waters from which springs flow.^(Isidore)

+

+ In medieval Latin it was also the depth of the sea, the sea itself, and hell.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(MLW) British writers sometimes declined it in the fourth declension and used it of deep pits and ocean depths.^(DMLBS) [[en|abyss]] is recorded in the late 14th century in the Latin form ''abyssus''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the deep and of hell.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 560–636 AD – Isidore defines it.^(Isidore)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * late 14th century – English ''abyss'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' A bottomless pit, an [[m|en|abyss]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' The deep, the sea; the underworld; [[m|en|hell]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' The depths of the sea.^(MLW)^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|abyss]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}