I got so confused when I read about this guy who was “sinking into an abyss of joy”.
I could understand “sinking into an abyss, since abyss is generally a depressed emotion or space, immeasurably deep.
Or, maybe the writer meant “sinking into joy”, which would be a state of bliss, as in a state of perfect happiness.
It is quite possible the writer meant that the person’s joy was so deep, but considering that an abyss is usually something depressing, well, it just doesn’t work for me.
Maybe the writer was trying for a new cliché?
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Abyss | Bliss |
|---|---|
 |
 — |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: abysses |
Noun; Verb
Plural for the noun: bliss Third person present verb: blisses |
| Noun: [Physical Geography] A deep or seemingly bottomless gorge, depth, void, or chasm
[Theology] The regions of hell conceived of as a bottomless pit Anything that appears to be endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame |
Noun: Perfect happiness
Verb: |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: A rope led down into the dark abyss. She leapt to her death in a nearby abyss. He was “lost in the vast abysses of space and time”. – Loren Eiseley How big is the abyss between them? The country was on the brink of an abyss. There was a terrifying abyss between the two nations. Shuddering, he thought of Satan’s dark abyss. The candidate was teetering on the edge of the abyss of a total political wipeout. |
Noun: She gave a sigh of bliss as she sank into the hot tub. “Oh, bliss,” she thought, as she slid between the cool linen sheets. It was a scene of such domestic bliss. After all her suffering, she looked forward to the bliss of heaven. Verb: He was obviously blissed out, staring at her face in adoration. Just give them some bean sprouts and a little tofu and they bliss out. It was a recording guaranteed to bliss out every Mozart fan. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: blissed-out, blissful, blissless Adverb: blissfully Noun: blissfullness |
|
| Phrasal Verb | |
| bliss out | |
| History of the Word: | |
| Late Middle English in the sense infernal pit is via the late Latin from the Greek abussos meaning bottomless, from a- (without) + bussos (depth). | Old English blīths meaning bliss is of Germanic origin and related to blithe. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
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Resources for Abyss versus Bliss
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Apple Dictionary.com
Collins Dictionary: bliss out
The Free Dictionary: abyss, bliss
Pinterest Photo Credits
Person Sitting on Cliff, Grand Canyon, Arizona, is under the CC0 1.0 license, via Rawpixel.
