Etymologically
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deep

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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
  • 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