precipice

What it means

1. A very steep cliff.

   I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent[…]

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

2. figurativelyThe brink of a dangerous situation.

   to stand on a precipice

   1 more example

   In emailed comments supporting the new initiative, the laureate professor Noam Chomsky said: “Humans are marching towards a precipice. When we reach it, unthinkable catastrophe is inevitable. […]”

   2022 September 14, Arthur Neslen, quoting Noam Chomsky, “Health groups call for global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty”, in The Guardian

3. obsoleteA headlong fall or descent.

In a sentence

I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent[…]

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*kap-, *keh₂p-“to hold; to seize”
2. Latinpraecipiō“to teach”
3. Proto-Indo-European*kap-“head”
4. Latinpraecipitium“a steep place”
5. Middle Frenchprecipice
6. Englishprecipice

First attested in 1598, from Middle French precipice, from Latin praecipitium (“a steep place”), from praeceps (“steep”), from prae + caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“head”). Distantly related to precept through Latin praecipiō (“to teach”), from prae + capiō (“take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”).