cul-de-sac

cul-de-sac

1. a. A dead-end street.
   b. An impasse: “This was the cul-de-sac the year kept driving me toward: men and women would always be at odds” (Philip Weiss).
2. Anatomy A saclike cavity or tube open only at one end.

Origin: French : cul, bottom (from Old French, from Latin cūlus; see culet ) + de, of (from Old French, from Latin dē; see de- ) + sac, sack (from Old French, from Latin saccus; see sack ¹).