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
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