cesspool
/ˈsɛspuːl
/- Physicians attributed the primary cause of disease to miasmas emanating from sewage, cesspools, or rotting vegetable matter.
- Place tight covers over cisterns, cesspools, septic tanks, fire barrels, rain barrels and tubs where water is stored.
- Our whole system is nothing but a corrupt cesspool of legalized bribery!
- Hersh's work won him a Pulitzer, and he's continued digging into military and political cesspools, including the CIA's bombing of Cambodia and its actions against Chile's Salvador Allende.
- But whether the Cabinet falls or not, Czechs know that very little will change, for the cesspool that is Czech political culture runs very deep indeed.
Origin
Late 17th century (denoting a trap under a drain to catch solids): probably an alteration, influenced by pool1, of archaic suspiral 'vent, water pipe, settling tank', from Old French souspirail 'air hole', based on Latin sub- 'from below' + spirare 'breathe'.
A cesspool, in early use, meant a trap under a drain to catch solids. It is perhaps an alteration, influenced by pool, of archaic suspiral ‘vent, water pipe, settling tank’, from Old French souspirail ‘air hole’ from Latin sub- ‘from below’ and spirare ‘breathe’. Mid 19th-century cesspit was formed from cesspool. The old Irish expression bad cess meaning ‘a curse on’ is unconnected. It may be a shortening of assess (see size). In the 15th century the native Irish had to supply their English rulers with goods at prices ‘assessed’ by the government. The shortening cess then became a word for ‘tax’, indicating how fair people thought the assessment was.