cul-de-sac

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Cul-de-sac

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

French for "bottom of the bag": cul < Latin culus ("bottom") + de ("of") + sac < Latin saccus < Greek σάκκος ("sack", "bag") < Hebrew שק (saq, "sack").

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[edit] Noun

cul-de-sac (plural: cul-de-sacs or culs-de-sac)

A blind alley or dead end street.
(US): A circular area at the end of a dead end street to allow cars to turn around, designed so children can play on street, with little or no through-traffic.
An impasse.
- 2005 February 14, National Review:
  
  Physics seems, in fact, to have got itself into a cul-de-sac, obsessing over theories so mathematically abstruse that nobody even knows how to test them.
(medicine) A sacklike cavity or tube open at one end only.