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January 2010Words in the NewsAfter President Obama declared Congress was "on the precipice" of passing legislation to reform the nation's health care, the term precipice teetered at 90th place on last month's Most Looked Up List. The 17th century coinage precipice comes from the Latin word for headlong (prae means before and caput means head). The original (now obsolete) meaning of precipice named a "sudden or headlong fall." When used broadly, the way the President did, precipice can be synonymous with brink, a 13th century coinage whose Scandinavian ancestor is akin to the Danish word meaning edge of a precipice. The word edge itself (which predates the 12th century) has its roots in Old English and is as old as the language itself. The adjective precipitous is a close relative of precipice that means "very steep." Precipitous is most often used to modify words like drop, fall, decline, and collapse. When used in non-literal contexts, it's a vivid way to say sudden – very much in the spirit of the original English sense of precipice. |