Abyssinia
adj, intj, name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Ethiopian; Eritrean; Abyssinian. dated, not-comparable
- 1 Expression of farewell: I’ll be seeing ya. dated, humorous
- 1 Former name of Ethiopia: a country and former empire in East Africa; used as an exonym until the mid 20th century. historical
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Since the end of the eighteenth century, the group of peoples who spread, probably from the Arabian peninsula, to Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine around 3000 BCE — and, before 700 BC from southern Arabia to Abyssinia, on the opposite African mainland — have been designated as Semites. They were so called after Shem, who, according to the first Book of Moses, chapter 10, was the eldest son of Noah."
Etymology
From Renaissance Latin Abyssīnī (“the Abyssinians”), from Arabic الْحَبَشَة (al-ḥabaša), from حَبَش (ḥabaš, “Abyssinian”). The humorous use of Abyssinia as a parting phrase is due to its phonetic resemblance to I'll be seeing ya.
More for "abyssinia"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.