abyssus

Borrowed from Latin abyssus.

abyssus (plural abyssi)

1. Archaic form of abyss.
   • 1613 November 5, Lancelot Andrewes, “A Sermon Preached before the King’s Maiestie, at White-hall […]”, in XCVI. sermons by the Right Honorable and Reverend Father in God, Lancelot Andrevves […], published 1629, page 935:

     He was, when there were yet no Abyssi, no depths, nor no mountaines vpon the Earth, nor the Earth it selfe […]

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄβῠσσος (ábussos, “bottomless pit”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /aˈbys.sus/, [äˈbʏs̠ːʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈbis.sus/, [äˈbisːus]

abyssus f (genitive abyssī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) an abyss

   Abyssus abyssum invocat. ― The abyss calls the abyss.

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Genesis.1.2:

     Terra autem erat inānis et vacua, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssī et spīritus Deī ferēbātur super aquās.

     And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

• *abīsmus

• Inherited forms:
  • >? Old Galician-Portuguese: avisso
  • Sicilian: avissu (Calabria)
• Ancient borrowings:
  • → Old Irish: abis
    • Irish: aibhéis
• Later borrowings:
  • → Catalan: abís
  • → French: abysse
    • → Romanian: abis
  • → German: Abyssus
  • → Italian: abisso
  • → Middle English: abissus
    • English: abyss
  • → Old French: abis
  • →? Romagnol: abès

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “abyssus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 63

• “abyssus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• abyssus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)