Pessum

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Toward ruin or destruction, as in something that has gone down to ruin or been brought to its ending
2. Describing a movement or state sinking into complete ruin, a fall to the lowest point or total destruction
3. Expressing a downward course toward collapse or annihilation, such as something being brought to utter ruin

Etymology: In Latin, "pessum" was an adverb meaning "to the ground" or "downward," and it gave rise to the phrase "pessum ire," "to go to the bottom," which came to mean being ruined or destroyed. Latin writers used the phrase in that literal, physical sense before it took on the figurative meaning of collapse and failure. English took the word from that Latin phrase, where it survives mainly in the expression "to go pessum," meaning to fall into ruin or come to nothing. The Latin adverb's own origin is uncertain, and it is not clearly related to the common Latin word for foot, "pes," despite the resemblance. The sense of sinking downward is the thread that links its literal and figurative uses.