Stand at the edge of a cliff. The ground stops at your toes and the land drops away, almost straight down, a long way. That edge is the whole word. Look at the rock and you get the steep, dangerous slope. Look at what would happen to anything that went over it and you get the fast, deep fall — which is what a chart does when sales collapse. Look at the person leaning too far forward and you get the decision made head first, before the thinking is done.
From the word’s history
The supplied Wiktionary etymology traces the word through Latin praeceps, praecipit-, formed from prae- (before, in front) and caput (head) — literally head first, and the same root that gives precipice, a steep cliff. The three modern uses sit neatly on those two pieces: the cliff, and the head going over it.
來源提供的字源說：這個字可以追到拉丁文 praeceps／praecipit-，由 prae-（在前）加 caput（頭）組成，字面就是「頭朝前」。同一個字根也給了我們 precipice（懸崖）。今天的三個意思剛好落在這兩塊上：一塊是懸崖本身，一塊是那顆先探出去的頭。
Wiktionary, "precipitous"
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。