Cesspool

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈsɛsˌpuːl/

Definitions

1. A pit or underground chamber used for collecting sewage and waste matter, or figuratively, a place regarded as morally corrupt and filthy
2. A deep receptacle designed for the accumulation of waste materials, which can also refer to a situation or environment characterized by extreme moral degradation and unpleasantness
3. An underground tank meant for the storage of liquid waste and sewage, also used to describe a place or state that is vile and depraved

Etymology: The most striking thing about "cesspool" is how little anyone can say for certain about it. The word appears in English in the 1500s as "sesspool," and its ancestry is a set of competing guesses rather than a settled chain. One candidate pairs the Italian "cesso," meaning privy or toilet, with the English "pool," which would make the word a blunt mix of two languages. Another points to an older English dialect word, "suspool," built from "suss" or "soss," meaning a puddle or mire, joined to "pool." A third theory is the most curious. It runs through Middle French "souspirail," an air hole, from a verb meaning to sigh or breathe, which traces back to Latin "suspirare." On this account the word began as a term for a ventilation opening, and folk speakers then reshaped it under the influence of "pool" into the familiar form. Whether any of these routes is correct remains unresolved, so the word's history is best understood as a sequence of plausible reshapings rather than a single documented path.

Synonyms: sewage, pit, sink

Antonyms: sanitation, cleanliness