Word.ws English Dictionary

Abyssinia

Syllables: A·bys·si·ni·a/ˌæ.bɪˈsɪ.nɪ.ə/US/ˌæ.bɪˈsɪ.ni.ə/

Abyssinia proper noun: former name of Ethiopia: a country and former empire in East Africa; used as an exonym until the mid 20th century.

Proper noun

Abyssinia

  1. (historical) Former name of Ethiopia: a country and former empire in East Africa; used as an exonym until the mid 20th century.
    Synonyms:
    Abassia

Adjective

Abyssinia (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Ethiopian; Eritrean; Abyssinian.

Interjection

  1. (dated, humorous) Expression of farewell: I’ll be seeing ya.

Abyssinia meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog and Arabic

Abyssinia in Hindi

historical exonym of Ethiopia, used until the mid 20th century
हबश habaś, हबस habas

Abyssinia in Urdu

historical exonym of Ethiopia, used until the mid 20th century
حبش habaś

Abyssinia in Tagalog

historical exonym of Ethiopia, used until the mid 20th century
Abisinya

Abyssinia in Arabic

historical exonym of Ethiopia, used until the mid 20th century
الْحَبَشَة al-ḥabaša
More languagesFewer languages
Abyssinia in Malay
but see Habsyah
Abyssinia in Persian
حبشه habaše

Synonyms of Abyssinia

Forms of Abyssinia

alternative form (archaic)Abissinia

Origin of Abyssinia

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.

Words formed from Abyssinia

Words that rhyme with Abyssinia

Questions about Abyssinia

What does Abyssinia mean?
Abyssinia means former name of Ethiopia: a country and former empire in East Africa; used as an exonym until the mid 20th century.
What is Abyssinia in Hindi?
Abyssinia in Hindi is हबश (habaś), हबस (habas). See Abyssinia meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Abyssinia?
Abyssinia can be a proper noun, an adjective or an interjection.
How do you pronounce Abyssinia?
Abyssinia is pronounced /ˌæ.bɪˈsɪ.nɪ.ə/ (UK).

Words near Abyssinia in the dictionary

  1. Abyssian
  2. Abyssians
  3. abyssic
  4. Abyssin
  5. Abyssine
  6. Abyssinia
  7. Abyssinian
  8. Abyssinian banana
  9. Abyssinian bananas
  10. Abyssinian cat
  11. Abyssinian cats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Abyssinia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Abyssinia.wav.

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