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This small piece of kit is designed to make building your Quiz, Crossword or Puzzle question more effective. It should make finding your question easier for others and, the easier it is to find, the more likely someone is to answer it!

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CESS - your thoughts, please

boxtops | 15:35 Sat 17th Jul 2010 | Crosswords

4 Answers

I am delighted to say that I don't need any help with the Kent Local Crossword today - I must be getting better at working out the cryptic clues! - but I would like your thoughts about the word CESS.

My clue was "approach current outlay" which I have parsed as
current = AC
outlay = cess
approach = access (which fits the crossword)

However I am not familiar with the word CESS in this context, I have looked it up and the principal British definittion is a tax, assessment, or lien. (= outlay)

Where, then, does CESSPIT come from? Not the same root? I am intrigued!

Guardian 25065

a disease of potato tubers r?n? ??t

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sedge47

ac cost

bernedette

I think cesspit is a pit used for sewage?? Maybe taking it away somewhere.There is also an old irish curse "bad cess to you"Think it meant you wished bad luck to someone?

boxtops

Question Author

Thanks, both. much appreciated.

Buenchico

My dictionary states that cesspit ('pit for disposal of refuse') is derived via cesspool ('underground chamber for temporary storage of liquid waste or sewage'). That seems to be derived from the earlier cesperalle, which in turn comes from suspiral ('vent' or 'waterpipe') and that comes from the Old French word souspirail ('air-hole').

'Cess', as in a tax or rate, seems to be simply derived from 'assess'.

None of which explains why rail workers use the word 'cess' to mean the space at the side of of a set of railway tracks!

Chris

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