cesspool

The story

1. Latin · derived fromsuspirare
2. Middle French · derived fromsouspirail“an air hole”
3. Middle English · derived fromsuspiral
4. Italian · derived fromcesso“privy, a toilet”
5. English todaycesspool

From earlier sesspool. Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Italian cesso (“privy, a toilet”) + English pool. Alternatively, an alteration of English dialectal suspool, from suss, soss (“a puddle; mire”) + pool. Another possible derivation is from a folk etymology (influence from pool) from earlier cesperalle, alteration of Middle English suspiral, from Middle French souspirail (“an air hole”), from soupirer, souspirer (“to sigh, breathe”), from Latin suspirare.

Words from the same roots