abisso

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

Borrowed from Late Latin abyssus, from Ancient Greek ἄβῠσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”).

abisso m (plural abissi)

1. abyss, gulf
   • 1300s–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], 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.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

abisso

1. first-person singular present indicative of abissare

• abisso in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana