verb/sɔ̃.bʁe/
to sink; to sink (+dans; into); to whittle away (disappear)
“sombrer dans l'alcoolisme” — sink into [the pit of] alcoholism
From a Middle French soussombrer, from alteration of soussoubrer, with influence from sombre, and the first part perhaps being interpreted as a prefix. The word soussoubrer was probably a loan through a maritime route from Portuguese soçobrar, itself likely from Spanish zozobrar, from Old Spanish sozobrar, and this from Old Catalan sotsobrar, from sotsobre, from sots + sobre, or from Vulgar Latin *subsuperāre, from Latin sub + super.