chasm

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin chasma,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek χάσμα (khásma, “yawning hollow, gulf”),^[2][3][4][7] which is related to χάσκω (kháskō, “to gape, yawn”) and its by-form χαίνω (khaínō),^[3][4][7] and so to chaos.^[3][7][8][9] Ayto traces the Greek verb to the Indo-European base Proto-Indo-European *ghei-, the source also of hiō (“to gape, yawn”), which gave hiatus, and of yawn.^[10][11] In English the Latin form was at first kept unchanged, until the late 1600s.^[2][12][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A yawning or gaping open, as of the sea or of the earth in an earthquake: 1596, in Fitzgeffry's Sir Francis Drake.^[2][12][13] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster give the same year.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

The first two English senses were events rather than places: the opening up of the earth or sea (to 1656) and a supposed rending of the sky (from 1601, in Holland's translation of Pliny, to 1744), a sense also found in Latin.^[2] From 1621 the word meant the lasting result, a deep cleft in the ground.^[2] From 1627 it also meant a wide crack in any structure.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a breach unclosed; a cleft; a gape; an opening".^[14] From the 1640s it was used figuratively for a wide difference of character, feeling or interest,^[2][3] from 1654 for a break in a narrative or a period of time.^[2] From 1759 it also meant an empty place or void.^[2] The phrase the bloody chasm was an old rhetorical name for the American Civil War, recorded in 1868.^[3] Green's dictionary of slang has one record of the word for the vagina, from 1980.^[15]

Timeline

• 1596 – a gaping open of the sea or of the earth (obsolete by 1656), with the form chasma.^[2][12]
• 1601 – a supposed rending of the sky (obsolete by 1744).^[2]
• 1621 – a large, deep cleft in the ground.^[2]
• 1627 – a wide crack or gap in any structure.^[2]
• 1641 – figuratively, a wide difference of feeling or position.^[2][3]
• 1654 – a break in the continuity of a narrative or period.^[2]
• 1759 – a void or blank.^[2]
• 1786 – the adjective chasmy.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deep cleft or opening in the ground; a gorge or abyss: The rope bridge swayed high above the chasm.^[16][11][2]
2. A wide crack or gap in any structure.^[2][12]
3. A wide difference of feeling or interests; a gulf: a growing chasm between the two factions.^[16][11][2]
4. A break in continuity; a hiatus.^[16][11][2]
5. (obsolete, 1596–1656) A gaping open of the sea, or of the earth in an earthquake.^[2][12]
6. (obsolete, 1601–1744) A supposed rending of the firmament.^[2][12]

Word family

• chasmal
• chasmed
• chasmy

Related words

• chaos
• hiatus
• yawn

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins