Etymologically
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cesspool

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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
  • 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