precipitous

Etymology

It is borrowed from French précipiteux (“steep; rash, impetuous”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} recorded from the mid 16th century.^[2][3] The OED takes the French word as probably formed from precipit (“hasty, impetuous”) and -eux, or perhaps as coming from an unattested Latin *praecipitosus,^[2] the form Etymonline names, from praecipitō (“to throw headlong; to be hasty”).^[3] These go back to praeceps (“steep, headlong”),^[2][3][8] from prae- (“before”) and caput (“head”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *kaput- (“head”).^[3] Merriam-Webster instead starts from praecipitium (“precipice”),^[4] and the American Heritage Dictionary takes the English word as probably coming from obsolete precipitious, from that Latin noun.^[9] The OED compares Spanish precipitoso, Portuguese precipitoso and Italian precipitoso.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Acting or done in excessive haste, rash: 1646, in Sir T. Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.^[2] Etymonline has the 1640s and Dictionary.com 1640–50,^[3][5] while Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1612.^[4] The adverb precipitously is earlier than the adjective in the OED,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 17th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The haste senses and the steep senses grew up side by side, since the Latin source meant both steep and headlong.^[2][3] A text of Browne's from 1646 is the OED's first quotation both for rashness and for a sense it groups with precipices and descent,^[2] and Etymonline glosses the early word as "rushing headlong, violently hurried".^[3] In 1681 Cotton used it for fast forward motion.^[2] Steepness, in the sense of being like a precipice, is recorded in the OED from 1660,^[2] although Etymonline gives 1806 and the Shorter Oxford the early 19th century.^[3][6] Johnson (1755) gave "headlong; steep" and "hasty; sudden".^[10] From the late 19th century the word also described a large and sudden decline.^[6] The dictionaries disagree on the haste sense: Etymonline calls it obsolete and the Shorter Oxford rare,^[3][6] but Merriam-Webster and Collins list it as current.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1646 – acting or done in excessive haste, rash; also, of motion, headlong.^[2][3]
• 1660 – of a rock face or place, steep or vertical, like a precipice.^[2] Etymonline dates this meaning to 1806.^[3]
• 1681 – having rapid forward motion; fast.^[2]
• late 19th century – of a decline or fall, large and sudden.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very steep, like a precipice, or having precipices: the precipitous coast of the island.^[11][4][6]
2. Of a decline or fall: large and sudden: a precipitous fall in house sales.^[6][11]
3. Done in great haste or without caution; rash: a precipitous decision to sell.^[4][11][2]

Word family

• precipitously
• precipitousness

Related words

• precipice
• precipitate
• precipitation

Usage notes

Collins notes that some people consider the use of precipitous to mean hasty incorrect,^[11] and Dictionary.com lists it with precipitate as a pair that is easily confused.^[5] The OED defines several of its senses by reference to the adjective precipitate, which also means hasty and steep.^[2]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins