abisso
Italian edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Borrowed from Late Latin abyssus, from Ancient Greek ἄβῠσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”).
Noun edit
abisso m (plural abissi)
- abyss, gulf
- mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto IV”, in Inferno [Hell][1], lines 23–24; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate][2], 2nd 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 edit
Etymology 2 edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb edit
abisso
Further reading edit
- abisso in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana