# Cess Poll

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cess-poll/661171>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 17, 2013, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cess-poll/661171 "2013-06-17T11:26:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cess-poll/661171/21 "2013-06-19T14:28:23Z")

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Like **Johanna** , I knew the “bad cess” expression. I did know it was Irish, but until today I always (wrongly) thought it was pronounced _kess_, from Irish _ceas_, “oppression; sorrow; debility.” So I never connected it with _cesspool_.

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cess-poll/661171/22 "2013-06-19T16:00:48Z")

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> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> Like **Johanna** , I knew the “bad cess” expression. I did know it was Irish, but until today I always (wrongly) thought it was pronounced _kess_, from Irish _ceas_, “oppression; sorrow; debility.” So I never connected it with _cesspool_.

I gather that this is a good thing, because there is no connection between them (in the same way that there is no reason to connect, for instance, the words “_fun_” and “_ **fun** eral_”).

As for the etymology, I rather liked the Random House one:

> [@](#):
>
> 1575–85; cess _\< Italian cesso privy \< Latin rēcessus recess, place of retirement) + pool1_

[Interesting that even on the site that offers that, there appears to be a case of dueling etymologies](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cesspool?s=t) But the reason I like that one is because someone who speaks Italian could conceivably tell us whether _cesso_ is really an Italian word for “privy.”

Oh, and that it gives a date range for first usage.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cess-poll/661171/23 "2013-06-20T22:02:32Z")

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All of these seem to go back to the Latin root _cess_-, which literally means ‘to go’.  
abscess - go away  
access - go toward  
ancestor - gone earlier  
antecedent - going earlier  
cession - going  
concession - going with  
decease - go down  
excess - go out  
incessant - not going away  
intercession - going between  
precession - going before  
process - go forward  
recess - go back  
retrocession - going backwards  
secession - going by oneself  
success - go under

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cess-poll/661171/24 "2013-06-21T03:31:30Z")

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Cool. All y’all.

ETA: and to think, I was just riffing on cesspoll/cesspool.

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