Bay, Bayou, Beck: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place").

One of the most important topographic features is freshwater bodies, such as rivers and lakes. Many words relating to freshwater features have little-known meanings and/or colorful etymologies.

In the current alphabetic series of such terms, here are the origins, forms, and histories of bay, bayou, and beck. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Bay
Modern English bay comes from Middle English baye (14th century), from Middle French baie, which may go back through other French forms to Old French baé, the past participle of baer ("to be open, gape").

Since the 14th century, bay has denoted any of various bodies of water indented into nearby land from a larger body of water, such as a lake or a sea.

A bay is typically a semicircular concavity, similar to a gulf but smaller. Bays may range from a few hundred yards to several hundred miles from side to side. They are usually located where soft rocks, such as clays and sandstones, easily erode back to a boundary of harder, more erosion-resistant rocks, such as granite and limestone.

Bayou
Bayou entered English in the 18th century through Louisiana French bayou, from Choctaw bayuk.

Bayou (1763) refers to any of various bodies of water. In general, it denotes a creek, secondary watercourse, or minor river that is tributary to another river or channel. More specifically, the word usually means a tributary consisting of still or slow-moving marshy water. Bayous are typical of Louisiana's Mississippi River delta.

Beck
Modern English beck comes from Middle English beck (15th century), bek (15th century), and becc (13th century), from Old Norse bekkr. The word is akin to Old English baec ("brook") and Old High German bah ("brook").

Beck is a British word for a creek, that is, a natural stream of water usually smaller than, and tributary to, a river (13th century).

The word is used mainly in the northern areas of England formerly occupied by Danes and Norwegians, hence the etymological tie with Old Norse. A beck in the north country typically has a stony bed and/or a rugged course.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.