gulf

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡʌlf/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English golf, goulf, borrowed from Old French golfe (“gulf, whirlpool”),^[2][3][4] from Italian golfo (“gulf, bay”),^[2][5] from Late Latin colpus, colfus,^[2][4] from Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom; fold of a garment; bay”).^[2][3][5][6] Etymonline and Barnhart connect the Greek word with PIE Proto-Indo-European *kʷolp- (“arch, vault”), the source of hwealf (“vault”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A profound depth, an abyss: probably about 1380 in Barnhart,^[2] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[3] The OED's first sense, a portion of the sea partly enclosed by land, is from about 1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the Greek word had many senses connected with a curved shape, and that the bay and depth senses reached English at the same time.^[6] A whirlpool, and figuratively anything that swallows things up, is from 1538,^[7] and a yawning chasm in the earth from before 1533.^[7] The figurative sense, a wide gap or division between people, from 1557, follows Luke 16:26, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.^[7][6] The Gulf alone can mean the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Mexico or, in Australia, the Gulf of Carpentaria.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – a deep abyss.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – a large inlet of the sea.^[7]
• 1538 – a whirlpool.^[7]
• 1557 – a wide gap between people (after Luke).^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large area of sea partly enclosed by land, usually larger than a bay.
2. A deep wide chasm; an abyss.
3. A wide gap or division, as in understanding or opinion.
4. Something, such as a whirlpool, that swallows things up.

Verb

1. To swallow up; to engulf.

Word family

• gulflike
• gulfy
• engulf
• Gulfport
• gulfweed
• Gulf Stream
• Gulf War

Related words

• bay

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins