English

Noun

abysm ‎(plural abysms)

1. (archaic, poetic) ****; the infernal pit; the great deep; the primal chaos. [First attested between 1150 and 1350.]^[2]
2. (now chiefly literary) An abyss; a gulf, a chasm, a very deep hole. [First attested in the late 15th century.]^[2]
   • 1623, Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, III, xiii:

     The abysm of ****.

   • 2015 January 30, Glyn Maxwell, “‘Ideas of Order,’ by Neil L. Rudenstine [book review; print version: Eternal lines: A guide to Shakespeare's sonnets, International New York Times, 2 February 2015, p. 7]”, in The New York Times:

     [T]he Shakespearean sonnet doesn't lend itself to a sequential narrative, because the rhymed couplet, without its paired feet trembling at that abysm of time, has to settle instead for the sound of sighing resolution, at regular intervals, over and over, before taking a deep breath and returning usually, for better or worse, to the same subject.

Translations

References

1. ↑ Christine A. Lindberg (editor), The Oxford College Dictionary, 2nd edition (Spark Publishing, 2007 [2002], ISBN 978-1-4114-0500-4), page 6
2. 1 2 3 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 11

• abysm in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913