precipice
nounEtymology
First attested in 1598, from Middle French precipice, from Latin praecipitium (“a steep place”), from praeceps (“steep”), from prae + caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“head”). Distantly related to precept through Latin praecipiō (“to teach”), from prae + capiō (“take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”).
- derived from praecipiō
- derived from *kap-✻
- derived from praecipitium
- borrowed from precipice
Definitions
A very steep cliff.
- I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent[…]
The brink of a dangerous situation.
- to stand on a precipice
- In emailed comments supporting the new initiative, the laureate professor Noam Chomsky said: “Humans are marching towards a precipice. When we reach it, unthinkable catastrophe is inevitable. […]”
A headlong fall or descent.
The neighborhood
- synonymcliff
- synonymcliffdrop
- neighborprecipitous
- neighborprecipitously
- neighborprecipitousness
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at precipice. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at precipice. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
5 hops · closes at precipice
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA