From French 'engolfer' (to swallow in a gulf) — from Greek 'kolpos' meaning both 'bosom' and 'bay.' Swallowed by the sea.
To sweep over and completely surround or cover; to overwhelm or swallow up entirely.
From French 'engolfer' (to swallow up in a gulf, to plunge into a whirlpool), from 'en-' (into) + 'golfe' (gulf, a deep bay), from Italian 'golfo,' from Byzantine Greek 'kolphos' (a bay, a bosom, a fold), from classical Greek 'kolpos' (bosom, the fold of a garment, a bay of the sea), from PIE *kwelp- (to arch, to vault — the curved, hollow form). The anatomical and geographical meanings of 'kolpos' were always intertwined: the curved bay that shelters ships was the same word as the fold of cloth that shelters an infant. Greek 'kolpos' underlies
Greek 'kolpos' meant both 'bosom' and 'bay' — the connection was the shape: a curved indentation, whether in coastline or body. This anatomical-geographical metaphor is preserved in English 'gulf,' which retains the sense of a large bay, and in the medical term 'colposcopy' (examination of the cervix), from the same root.
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