From Greek 'abyssos' — 'a-' (without) + 'byssos' (bottom). Originally the primordial waters of Genesis.
A deep or seemingly bottomless chasm; anything profound or infinite.
From Late Latin 'abyssus' (bottomless pit, abyss, hell), from Greek 'abyssos' (bottomless, unfathomable), a compound of 'a-' (not, without; the privative alpha) + 'byssos' (bottom, depth), which derives from 'bathys' (deep) via a related or possibly variant form. Greek 'bathys' (deep) connects to PIE *gʷʰedʰ- or *bʰudʰ- (bottom, depth), the same root underlying Latin 'fundus' (bottom, base), English 'bottom,' German 'Boden,' and Sanskrit 'budhna' (ground, floor). The word entered ecclesiastical Latin and then Old French in the sense