Abysm

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈbɪzəm/

Definitions

1. A very deep or seemingly bottomless chasm or gulf in the earth or sea ; a situation or condition that is intensely bad or severe
2. An unfathomably deep opening or steep ravine ; a circumstance marked by extreme difficulty or severity
3. A profound depth or abyss in natural terrain ; an overwhelming or dire state or predicament

Etymology: Ancient Greek "ábussos" meant "bottomless," built from the negative prefix "a-" and "bussos," "depth" or "bottom." The Greeks used it for the abyss, the unfathomable void beneath the world, and the word passed into Late Latin as "abyssus" with the same sense of a bottomless pit. The English form descends from Old French "abisme," which took the Latin word and, around the time it was adopted into Middle English as "abime," added a superlative ending, probably from a Late Latin form "abyssimus." Modern French "abîme" is its cognate, so the English word and the French one share a single ancestor that has kept its core meaning of a deep chasm for well over a thousand years. Over time, "abysm" drifted from the physical depth of a ravine toward figurative extremity. Someone in a state of utter despair might be said to be sunk in an abysm, and a situation of extreme difficulty or severity could be described the same way, so the word now covers both a literal gulf and a metaphorical one.

Synonyms: abyss, chasm