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Wiktionary The Free Dictionary

abisso

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Abisso and abissò

Italian

Pronunciation

IPA ^(key): /aˈbis.so/
Rhymes: -isso
Hyphenation: a‧bìs‧so

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Late Latin abyssus , from Ancient Greek ἄβῠσσος (ábŭssos, "bottomless").

Alternative forms

abbisso , avisso (archaic , dialectal , inherited?)
nabisso (deverbal from nabissare , apheretic form of inabissare )

Noun

abisso m (plural abissi )

abyss, gulf
- 1300s–1310s, Dante Alighieri, "Canto IV", in Inferno [Hell], lines 23–24; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
  Così si mise e così mi fé intrare
  nel primo cerchio che l’abisso cigne.
  Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter the foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.
- 1825, "Libro XXII [Book 22]", in Vincenzo Monti, transl., Iliade [Iliad], Milan: Giovanni Resnati e Gius. Bernardoni di Gio, translation of Ἰλιάς (Iliás) by Homer, published 1840, page 479, lines 463–466:
  Così detto, spirò. Sciolta dal corpo
  Prese l’alma il suo vol verso l’abisso,
  Lamentando il suo fato ed il perduto
  Fior della forte gioventude. [...]
  Having said that, he passed. His soul, released from the body, took flight towards the abyss, lamenting its fate and the lost flower of strong youth.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

abisso

first-person singular present indicative of abissare

Further reading

"abisso", in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026

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