cesspool

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɛsˌpuːl/^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] The usual explanation is that it is inherited from Middle English suspiral (“vent, breathing hole; drainpipe; settling tank”),^[5][2][3][6] borrowed from Old French souspirail (“air hole, vent”),^[5][2][7][8] from souspirer (“to breathe, sigh”), from Latin suspīrāre (“to breathe deeply, sigh”) (see suspire).^[5][2][3][7] Its variant cesperalle (1583) was altered by association with pool.^{[5][2][3][7][8]} Others take the second element as original and derive the first element from recess,^[9][3][4] from Italian cesso (“privy”),^[10][4] or from dialect suss (“hogwash”);^[2][4] the early spelling cestpool has also suggested cistern.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small pit in the bottom of a drain, under a grating, to catch sand and gravel (1583 in the OED, as cesperalle;^[11][2] cestpool 1671 in Barnhart).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster's Word Histories calls the word “a veritable reservoir of etymological murk”.^[4] From 1782 it was a well sunk to receive the waste from a privy or sink, letting the liquid soak away.^[11][6] The figurative sense, a filthy or morally corrupt place, as in a cesspool of iniquity, is from 1837.^[11][10][12] Cesspit was formed from it in the 19th century.^[13][8]

Timeline

• 1583 – cesperalle, a settling pit in a drain.^[11][2]
• 1671 – cestpool.^[2]
• 1782 – a pit for household sewage.^[11][6]
• 1837 – figuratively, a place of corruption.^[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A covered pit or underground tank for receiving drainage or sewage, as from a house.
2. A filthy, disgusting or morally corrupt place.

Word family

• cesspipe

Related words

• cesspit
• pool
• suspire
• sewer
• sump

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press