Today's Word "precipitous"
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Published in Vocabulary
precipitous \pri-SI-peh-tehs\ (adjective) - Extremely steep and thus resembling a precipice.
"Phillip's precipitate decision to climb the precipitous precipice precipitated his demise."
The etymologies of "precipitous," "precipitate" and "precipice" trifurcate from the same source: Latin praecipitium "precipice" from praeceps, praecipit- "headforemost, headlong." Prae-, pre- means and shares an origin with English "fore-." "Cipit" is a reduction of "caput," which means and shares the same origin as English "head" via Old English "heafod." Another variant, capitulum "little head," became "chapitre" in French and was borrowed as "chapter" by English.
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