Word of the Day

Sunday August 16, 2009

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precipice [PRES-uh-pis]

noun

1. A very steep, perpendicular, or overhanging place (rock face); a cliff.
2. An extremely dangerous, hazardous situation.

• What has brought one of the fastest growing commuter rail systems in the country to the precipice of its demise? Funding or, more precisely, the lack thereof.
  Joe Giulietti, "The Region Cannot Afford Losing Tri-Rail", South Florida Sun – Sentinel, Jun 28, 2009
• My suspicion is that bright, ambitious men need risk, thrive on it and become addicted to it. Fortune favors the bold, you see. You can't become a statesman without taking some calculated risks. So, in a sense, in becoming a politician, you are not just standing on the precipice to disaster, you're moving your life there.
  Marc Fitten, "Life on the edge slips up", The Atlanta Journal – Constitution, Jun 28, 2009
• At first neither Roy nor Nelly felt much inconvenience, but towards evening they could not see as distinctly as usual. One consequence of this was, that they approached a precipice without seeing it.
  R. M. Ballantyne (1825 - 1894) A Scottish juvenile fiction writer. Silver Lake (1867)

Origin of the Word

Precipice, approximately 1598, derives from French precipice, from Latin precipitium "a steep place," literally" a fall or leap," from preceps (gen. precipitis) "steep, headlong, headfirst," from pre- "forth" + caput "head".