1823, "a fissure or crack in the ice of glaciers in the Alps;" 1814, "a breach in a riverbank" (in this use via Louisiana French), from French crevasse, from Old French crevace "crevice" (see crevice). Identical with crevice, but re-adopted in senses for which the then-meaning of crevice was felt to be too small.

"a crack, a cleft, a fissure," mid-14c., crevace, from Old French crevace (12c., Modern French crevasse) "gap, rift, crack" (also, vulgarly, "the female pudenda"), from Vulgar Latin *crepacia, from Latin crepare "to crack, creak" (see raven). Between Latin and French the meaning shifted from the sound of breaking to the resulting fissure.