cesspool

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an underground pit or sealed chamber used to collect sewage and waste water

   The old cottage drained into a cesspool behind the garden wall.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative: a place or situation marked by extreme corruption, filth, or degradation

   The report described the prison as a cesspool of violence and corruption.

Simplified etymology

Cesspool originally meant a trap beneath a drain that caught solid matter. It may be an alteration, influenced by pool, of the archaic word suspiral, meaning a vent, water pipe, or settling tank. Suspiral came from Old French souspirail, “air hole,” ultimately combining Latin sub-, “from below,” with spirare, “breathe.”

From earlier sesspool; the first element is uncertain and may reflect Italian cesso, 'privy,' or an English dialect word for mud or a puddle. Association with pool helped establish the modern form. The figurative sense compares moral corruption with accumulated sewage.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary