Precipitancy and its synonym precipitance mean “undue hastiness or suddenness” and were used more often in political contexts circa 1800 than they are today:īut the power in question has a further use. Precipitous means “very steep” and also has a clear figurative use (“a precipitous drop in prices”). Its literal meaning, “a sheer cliff,” was quickly followed by its figurative sense, “a point where danger, trouble, or difficulty begins” as in “He is on the precipice of a midlife crisis.” Precipice first meant “a sudden or headlong fall,” a meaning now obsolete in English. These uses followed the verb into the language and are distinguished from it by pronunciation, but retain the ideas of “falling” shared with precipitation and “steep” shared with its other praeceps cousins. It's usually pronounced \prih-SIP-uh-tut\ in these uses. Precipitate is also a noun (“a substance separated from a solution”) and adjective (“steep” or “fast,” as in “a precipitate decline”). Him from that height shall Heaven precipitate The corresponding verb precipitate (pronounced \prih-SIP-uh-tayt\) is used today to mean “to bring about especially abruptly” (“falling demand precipitated an industry crisis”), but its original meaning “to cast or hurl down, as from a precipice or height” was used in the same violent contexts as Shakespeare’s precipitation: William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 3 Shakespeare used precipitation’s other early meaning, “the act of hurling or casting down,” with reference to a Roman form of execution by throwing someone from a cliff known as Tarpeian Rock:Įven from this instant, banish him our city, Thomas Paynell, The Treasurie of Amadis of Fraunce, 1572 Therefore let vs take hede to procede by ripe deliberation, fearing least we repent us to much by leasure of our foolish precipitation and hastinesse. In the 1500s its “haste” meaning was frequently used: The twin ideas expressed by words derived from praeceps are “rushed” and “steep.” The oldest of these English words, precipitation, originally meant “haste” and “the act of hurling or casting down”-it had no connection to water falling from the sky for another two centuries or more. The close connection between headlong and praeceps is no accident: the literal meaning of the Latin praeceps is “ headfirst,” as it is formed from the Latin prae-, meaning “in front of” or “before”-the ancestor of pre- in English-and caput, meaning “head.” 'Precipitation' and 'precipitous': same root, different words.
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