Abyssinia
UK /ˌæ.bɪˈsɪ.nɪ.ə/ · US /ˌæ.bɪˈsɪ.ni.ə/ proper noun, adjective, interjection
Forms Abissinia
- proper noun (historical) Former name of Ethiopia: a country and former empire in East Africa; used as an exonym until the mid 20th century.
- adjective (dated) Ethiopian; Eritrean; Abyssinian.
- interjection (humorous, dated) Expression of farewell: I’ll be seeing ya.
Synonyms
Abassia Ethiopia Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Yaltopya
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.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Abyssinia”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details