The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromἄορνος
- Latin · borrowed fromAvernus
- English todayAvernus
From Latin Avernus, from Ancient Greek ἄορνος (áornos), ἄϝορνος (áwornos, “birdless”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”). The lack of birds was likely due to fatal gases like carbon dioxide seeping from the volcanically active lake.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.