cul-de-sac

See also: culdesac and cul de sac

English

Alternative forms

• culdesac, cul de sac

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH-der.

Proto-Italic *kūlos

Latin cūlus

Old French cul

Middle French cul

French cul

Proto-Indo-European *de

Proto-Indo-European *-h₁

Proto-Indo-European *déh₁

Proto-Italic *dē

Latin dē

Old French de

Middle French de

French de

Ancient Greek σᾰ́κκος (sắkkos)bor.

Latin saccus

Old French sac

French sac

French cul-de-sacbor.

English cul-de-sac

Borrowed from French cul-de-sac, from cul (“bottom”) + de (“of”) + sac (“bag, sack”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌldəsæk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌldəsak/

Noun

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

A cul-de-sac

1. A blind alley or dead end street.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them. It was a watery cul de sac.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     His was the end house of a cul-de-sac, with the side wall of a huge brewery beyond.

2. A circular area at the end of a dead end street to allow cars to turn around, designed so children can play on the street, with little or no through-traffic.
   • 2010 January 17, Cara Buckley, “A Suburban Treasure, Left to Die”, in New York Times, page Section MB; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1:

     And in suburbs known for new development, preservationists are often battling a general perception that there is nothing historic or worth saving among the cul-de-sacs.

3. (figurative) 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.

   • 2022 June 3, Günseli Yalcinkaya, quoting Mat Dryhurst, “Are you content? How the internet rewired our brains”, in Dazed‎^[1], archived from the original on 16 December 2022:

     The internet is a remarkable tool to find others and coordinate, but as an end to itself can become a cul de sac of frustrated desires and circular arguments.

4. (medicine, botany) A sacklike cavity, a tube open at one end only.

Translations

blind alley — see dead end

circular area at the end of a dead end street

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 死衚衕 / 死胡同 (zh) (sǐhútòng), 死路 (zh) (sǐlù), 死巷 (zh) (sǐxiàng)

• Finnish: kääntöpaikka (fi)
• French: bout de cul-de-sac résidentiel m
• German: Wendeplatte f, Wendekreis (de) m, Wendehammer (de) m
• Latin: fundula f
• Macedonian: ќо́р-сокак m (ḱór-sokak)
• Norwegian: snuplass m
• Portuguese: cul-de-sac (pt) m, balão de retorno m
• Russian: тупик (ru) (tupik)
• Spanish: culdesac m
• Swedish: vändplats (sv) c, vändplan (sv) c

impasse — see impasse

medicine: a sacklike cavity or tube

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陷凹 (zh) (xiàn'āo)

• Finnish: tasku (fi), pussi (fi)
• German: Tasche (de) f
• Greek: κόλπωμα (el) n (kólpoma)
• Icelandic: blindpoki m
• Portuguese: saco (pt) m, bolsa (pt) f
• Russian: слепо́й мешо́к m (slepój mešók)

See also

• turning circle

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowing from French cul-de-sac, from cul (“bottom”) + de (“of”) + sac (“bag, sack”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [ˌkul.dəˈsak]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [ˌkul.deˈsak]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

cul-de-sac m (plural cul-de-sacs)

1. cul-de-sac

   Synonyms: atzucac, carreró sense sortida, carreró sense eixida

Further reading

• “cul-de-sac”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ky.d(ə).sak/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

cul-de-sac m (plural culs-de-sac)

1. dead end, cul-de-sac (a path that goes nowhere)
2. impasse

Synonyms

• impasse

Descendants

• → English: cul-de-sac

Further reading

• “cul-de-sac”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French cul-de-sac.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌkuw.d͡ʒiˈsa.ki/ [ˌkuʊ̯.d͡ʒiˈsa.ki]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌkuw.d͡ʒiˈsa.ki/ [ˌkuʊ̯.d͡ʒiˈsa.ki]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌkuw.deˈsa.ki/ [ˌkuʊ̯.deˈsa.ki]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌkul.dɨˈsak/ [ˌkuɫ.dɨˈsak]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌkul.dɨˈsak/ [ˌkuɫ.dɨˈsak]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌku.li.dɨˈsak/ [ˌku.li.ðɨˈsak]

Noun

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

1. cul-de-sac; blind alley (street that leads nowhere)

   Synonyms: rua sem saída, beco sem saída

2. cul-de-sac (circular area at the end of a dead end street)
3. (figurative) cul-de-sac; dead end; impasse

   Synonyms: impasse, beco sem saída

Further reading

• “cul-de-sac”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN

Spanish

Alternative forms

• culdesac
• cul de sac

Etymology

From French cul-de-sac, from cul (“bottom”) + de (“of”) + sac (“bag, sack”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkul ˌde ˈsak/ [ˌkul̪ ˌd̪e ˈsak]
• Syllabification: cul-de-sac

Noun

cul-de-sac m (plural cul-de-sacs)

1. cul-de-sac; blind alley (street that leads nowhere)
2. cul-de-sac (circular area at the end of a dead end street)
3. (figurative) cul-de-sac; dead end; impasse

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.