gulf
pronunciation
How to pronounce gulf in British English:
UK [ɡʌlf]
How to pronounce gulf in American English:
US [ɡʌlf]
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- Noun:
- an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay
- an unbridgeable disparity (as from a failure of understanding)
- a deep wide chasm
Word Origin
- gulf
- gulf: [14] Gulf comes from Greek kólphos, which meant originally ‘bosom’. It was later extended metaphorically to denote ‘bag’, and also ‘trough between waves’, and these senses (the latter modified to ‘abyss’) followed it through Vulgar Latin *colphus, Italian golfo, and French golphe into English. The derivative engulf, based on the sense ‘abyss’, dates from the mid-16th century.
- gulf (n.)
- late 14c., "profound depth," from Old French golf "a gulf, whirlpool," from Italian golfo "a gulf, a bay," from Late Latin colfos, from Greek kolpos "bay, gulf of the sea," earlier "trough between waves, fold of a loose garment," originally "bosom," the common notion being "curved shape." This is from PIE *kwelp- "to arch, to vault" (compare Old English hwealf, a-hwielfan "to overwhelm"). Latin sinus underwent the same development, being used first for "bosom," later for "gulf" (and in Medieval Latin, "hollow curve or cavity in the body"). The geographic sense "large tract of water extending into the land" (larger than a bay, smaller than a sea, but the distinction is not exact and not always observed) is in English from c. 1400, replacing Old English sæ-earm. Figurative sense of "a wide interval" is from 1550s. The U.S. Gulf States so called from 1836. The Gulf Stream (1775) takes its name from the Gulf of Mexico.
Example
- 1. One doubts the gulf arabs share that concern .
- 2. Did dire predictions about the gulf ecosystem come true ?
- 3. The gulf was awash in poisonous smoke soot and ash . Black rain fell . Lakes of oil were created .
- 4. But the gulf between government and the former rebels is widening .
- 5. But there was always a gulf between those societies and the united states .