2744: An Abysmal, Bottomless Pit Jun 25, 2024

The word ‘abyss’ is related to ‘abysmal’, perhaps unsurprisingly, though in practice they are not so closely connected. ‘Abyss’ refers to a bottomless pit of mythological significance, from the Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos) for ‘bottomless’, confusingly derived from, from ἀ- (a-) “not” + βυσσός (bussós) for “deep place” but here it is not negated entirely but rather intensified, i.e. a “not merely deep place”. Lots of cultures have a similar type word, like Old English’s neowolnes comparable to ‘nether’ for something like “depth; lowness”.

The -M- in ‘abysmal’, which was the typical adjectival form of ‘abyss’ historically, uses another version of the word from Latin, which actually led to another, no longer used English word ‘abysm’ from the Latin superlative ending -imus, like the difference from “bravo → bravissimo” borrowed from Italian. Here, though literally meaningless (i.e. “most bottomless place” isn’t semantically sensible), it acts as an intensifier leading to the figurative use ‘abysmal’ has today of just meaning “very bad”. As such, the current adjectival form of ‘abyss’ is ‘abyssal’ that does not carry the figurative meaning.