deep

Pronunciation

• IPA: /diːp/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dep, inherited from Old English dēop (“deep; profound, mysterious”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *deupaz,^[2][3][5] the source also of Old Saxon diop, Dutch diep, German tief, Old Norse djúpr and Gothic diups.^[2][6] It is from Proto-Indo-European *dheub- (“deep, hollow”),^[2][4][3] the source also of Lithuanian dubùs “deep, hollow”, Welsh dwfn “deep” and Old Irish domun “world”, through “bottom”, “foundation”, “earth”.^[2][3] It is related to dip^[3][7][8] and dive.^[9] The adverb and noun are Old English dēope and dēop, from the adjective.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English dēop: 854 in the OED,^[10] or about 725, in a version of the poem Genesis.^[3] Middle English dep is from before 1150, and earlier in the place name Depehill (1119).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old English deep was already used figuratively, “profound, mysterious; serious, solemn”.^[2] By about 1200 it meant “sagacious, of penetrating mind”, of persons.^[2] Extending inward or back from the front is from before 1000^[10] or the early 14th century.^[2] Of sound, “low in pitch”, and of colour, “intense”, it is from the late 14th century.^[2] The noun, deep water, especially the sea, is Old English,^[2][3] and the deep for the ocean is from before 1333.^[3] In deep water, “in trouble”, has biblical origins in the Psalms.^[9] In cricket a fielder deep stands far from the batsman, from 1867,^[10] and the deep end of a swimming pool is from 1921,^[10] giving go off the deep end and thrown in at the deep end.^[9]

Timeline

• 854 – having great extension downward.^[10]
• before 1000 – extending far back.^[10]
• c. 1200 – of persons, penetrating.^[2]
• late 14th century – of sound and colour.^[2]
• before 1333 – the deep, the sea.^[3]
• 1867 – in cricket.^[10]
• 1921 – deep end.^[10]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Extending far down from the top or surface.
2. Extending far back from the front, or far in from the outside.
3. Having a specified depth: six feet deep.
4. Difficult to understand; profound.
5. Intense or extreme: deep sleep.
6. Of colour, dark and rich; of sound, low in pitch.

Adverb

1. Far down, in or back; deeply.

Noun

1. (literary) The sea: the deep.
2. A deep place in the sea, or in land.

Word family

• deeply
• deepness
• rapture of the deep

Related words

• deep fat
• deep freezer
• deep pockets
• Deep South
• deep space
• deep structure
• Deep Throat
• depth
• deepen
• dip
• dive

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press