cesspool

noun

Etymology: From earlier sesspool. Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Italian cesso (“privy, a toilet”) + English pool. Alternatively, an alteration of English dialectal suspool, from suss, soss (“a puddle; mire”) + pool. Another possible derivation is from a folk etymology (influence from pool) from earlier cesperalle, alteration of Middle English suspiral, from Middle French souspirail (“an air hole”), from soupirer, souspirer (“to sigh, breathe”), from Latin suspirare.

1. An underground pit where sewage is held.
2. A filthy place.

   “Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.”