Crevasse, Crosscut, Crypt, Cwm: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning Valley, Cave

The natural features of a region are called its topography. The word comes from Greek topos ("place").

English speakers have a long history of inventing (or borrowing from other languages) all sorts of different names for related topographical features.

Valleys and caves, for example, as well as human-made features having similar topographical effects, are known by a wide range of words in English, each with its own unique story to tell.

In the alphabetically arranged presentation of such terms in the current series, the next words are these: crevasse, crevice, crosscut, crypt, and cwm. Here is an overview of their origins, forms, and histories. The dates of first appearance of the forms and meanings are from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Crevasse
Crevasse entered English in the 19th century as an anglicization of French crevasse, from Old French crevace. The Old French noun comes from the verb crever ("to break"), from Latin crepare ("to crack").

English speakers adopted the word crevasse to denote a break, opening, or chasm of some width and considerable depth, as distinct from the smaller opening usually conveyed by the older word crevice.

A break in a river levee is a crevasse (early 19th century). This sense of the word seems to have originated among French speakers in Louisiana.

A deep fissure or chasm in the earth or in some large object, such as a glacier, is a crevasse (early 19th century). This sense of the word was first used by climbers in the Swiss Alps.

Crevice
Modern English crevice comes from Middle English crevice (15th century) and crevace (14th century), from Middle French crevace, from Old French crevace. The Old French noun comes from the verb crever ("to break"), from Latin crepare ("to crack").

An opening resulting from a split or crack in a cliff, crag, or similar natural feature is a crevice (c. 1340).

Crosscut
Crosscut is a simple combination of cross and cut.

A crosscut is anything that cuts across or through something else.

Its principal use is in mining, where a passage driven horizontally and at right angles to the main workings of a mine, such as an adit or a level, is a crosscut (1789).

Crypt
Crypt comes from Latin crypta, from Greek krypte, from the feminine of kryptos ("hidden"), from kryptein ("to hide").

A chamber wholly or partly underground, especially a vault used as a burial place under the main floor of a church, is a crypt (1789).

Cwm
Cwm (pronounced koom, as in loom) is Welsh for "valley."

The word is used in many Welsh place-names, such as Cwmbran, a town in southeastern Wales.

Cwm has been borrowed into standard English to denote a natural amphitheater, that is, a rounded hollow or plain encircled by heights. In modern use, the word generally refers to a deep, steep-walled basin on a mountain, usually at the end of a valley (1853). Synonymous terms include circus and cirque.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.