the.com/gash

a wound that brags about itself, jagged and dramatic where a cut just whispers.

means A long, deep cut or tear in something, with rough, jagged edges.

from From Middle English 'garsen,' 'to cut,' which came through Old French 'garser' (to scarify or slash) and is thought to trace back to a Late Latin or Greek root 'charassein,' meaning to scratch or engrave — the same family that gives us 'character,' originally a mark scratched into a surface. The 'sh' sound is later English softening; the early forms had a harder 'garse' ending. So the bragging wound and the etched letter are distant cousins, both about leaving a mark.

old norse
root traces to words meaning to yawn or gape
deeper than cut
gash implies torn flesh, not a clean line
slang life
sailors used it for spare or useless gear
verb too
you can gash a tire, a knee, a hull
for instance

grand canyon — massive gorge carved by the colorado river, 277 miles long, reaching 6,000 feet deep in arizona

great rift valley — tectonic trench system stretching 4,000 miles from syria through east africa to mozambique

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