Knowledge

/

ArcaMax

Today's Word "precipitous"

on

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.


 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

Danny Seo

EcoTips

By Danny Seo
Rob Kyff

The Word Guy

By Rob Kyff

Comics

Pat Bagley Mother Goose & Grimm Harley Schwadron Ed Gamble Bart van Leeuwen John Darkow