Abysm

an .
historical examples

i believe that the hour comes when the knell of kings is to peal; that an evil genius pushes monarchy unto the abysm.
the hero of the people alexandre dumas

his voice dropped, and he seemed to drop too, into some abysm of thought.
balcony stories grace e. king

i’ve been exploring the dark backwards and abysm of the bronx—afoot.
the destroying angel louis joseph vance

“four years,” said andrew looking into the dark backward and abysm of time.
the mountebank william j. locke

the flooring of these colossal garrets has crevices in it through which one can look down into the abysm, the church, below.
the memoirs of victor hugo victor hugo

it is easy to see how such conditions profoundly limit the development of organic being in the abysm of the ocean.
outlines of the earth’s history nathaniel southgate shaler

phil and i had been cl-ssmates in the dark backward and abysm, and we were still, in a manner of speaking, friends.
the book of susan lee wilson dodd

this makes their date one of incalculable antiquity; they are removed from us by a ‘dark backward and abysm of time.’
custom and myth andrew lang

cf. “tempest,” i, 2, 50: “in the dark backward and abysm of time.”
hazlitt on english literature jacob zeitlin

i shall never count an iota against you “in the dark backward and abysm of time.”
diana of the crossways, complete george meredith

noun
an archaic word for abyss
n.

“bottomless gulf, greatest depths,” now chiefly poetic, c.1300, from old french abisme (modern french abîme), from vulgar latin -abyssimus (source of spanish and portuguese abismo), which represents either a superlative of latin abyssus or a formation on -n-logy of greek-derived words in -ismus; see abyss.