Brook, Cascade, Cataract: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

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

Freshwater bodies, such as rivers and lakes, are among the most important topographic features of a region. 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 brook, cascade, and cataract. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Brook
Modern English brook comes from Middle English brook (14th century), from Old English broc (before 12th century). The word is akin to Old High German bruoh ("marshy ground").

The original meaning of brook is a torrent, or a strong flowing stream (9th century). Later, however, the word came to denote a small stream or rivulet, especially one that is tributary to a larger body of flowing water.

Cascade
Cascade entered English in the 17th century as a borrowing of French cascade, from Italian cascata, from cascare ("to fall"), from (assumed) Vulgar Latin casicare, from Latin casus ("fall").

A cascade is a steep but small fall of water, especially one of a series of such falls formed by the descent of water over rocks (1641). Discussions of waterfalls often include distinguishing a cascade, a small waterfall, from a cataract, a large one (see cataract below).

Cataract
Cataract entered English in the 14th century from Latin cataracta ("waterfall, portcullis"), from Greek kataraktes, from katarassein ("to dash down"), from kata- ("down") and arassein ("to strike, dash").

The early meanings of cataract include a portcullis (a grating of iron lowered over a gateway; 14th century, obsolete); a floodgate, usually used in plural to denote the floodgates of heaven viewed as preventing rain from falling (15th century, obsolete); and a clouding of the lens of the eye (that is, the coming down of a cloud over the eye (16th century).

Topographically, a cataract is a waterfall, especially a large one with the water falling headlong over a precipice, or, by extension, steep rapids in a large river (1594). A cataract, a large waterfall, is often distinguished from a cascade, a small one (see cascade above).
_____________________________

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.