Abseil

[William Hupy]

From German, down plus rope. In English this means to descend a near vertical cliff face.

[bnjtokyo]

Actually, it is the term British (and some British Commonwealth) climbers/mountaineers use instead of the French "rappel" that North American climbers tend to use. It describes a method for descending a rope secured to an anchor at a high point by wrapping the rope around something that creates friction. (Until about the middle of the 20th century, that something was often the climber's body. In the latter half to the 20th century various mechanical aids were introduced which both increase safety and reduce discomfort.) The object being descended could be all manner of things with steep or no sides: cliffs, crevasses in glaciers, bridges (not to be confused with bungee jumping), buildings, trees, helicopters.

In English, it is a verb/noun borrowed from a German verb and noun abseilen/Abseilen where "ab" is a preposition translated as "down/away" and "seilen" is a verb translated as "wrap with a rope" from "seil," rope and "-en," a verbal suffix. In translation, it would be "(to) down (wrapped with a) rope," which pretty accurately describes the technique Heinrich Harrer and his contemporaries used when they needed to descend in steep terrain. Modern climbers have a multitude of belay and rappel (abseil) devices available to them that do not involve wrapping oneself with the rope.

Do we want to fill the Good Word Dictionary with loan words used exclusively in esoteric jargons? Personally, I think not.

[Dr. Goodword]

I have to agree with your last thought. I've even avoided rappel because (1) it was too specialized, so that few people were acquainted with it, and (2) I couldn't think of a reasonable figurative use.

--RB

[call_copse]

It's pretty mainstream in the UK. I've abseiled, my kids have learned such skills in scout groups etc - not on cliffs TBF but on climbing walls. It's fun.

As for figurative uses there is a common one here - abseiling down the climate cliff. Though I understand my US friends are generally skeptical of such things - even as Thwaites glacier melts

http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsci ... etaphor-2/

[bnjtokyo]

I don't consider abseiling fun; it's down right dangerous. To make your metaphor a bit more apropos, I'd say it's like abseiling down the climate cliff in the dark without bothering to tie the ends of the rope together.

[call_copse]

Maybe it's not in the spirit of 'real' abseiling but as a planned activity it has all sorts of safety ropes attached; I admit I was terrified doing it, but I knew there was no real danger.

The climate however seems to be causing some consternation...