Downriver, Downstream, Estuary, Fall: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

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

Rivers, lakes, and related freshwater bodies are among the most important topographic features of a region. Many terms relating to freshwater features have little-known meanings and/or colorful etymologies.

In the current alphabetic series of such words, here are the origins, forms, and histories of downriver, downstream, estuary, and fall. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Downriver, Downstream
Downriver is an adverb or adjective meaning toward, or at a point nearer, the mouth of a river (1852).

Downstream is an adverb or adjective meaning in the direction of, or nearer to, the mouth of a stream (1706).

Estuary
Estuary entered English in the 16th century from Latin aestuarium, from aestus ("boiling, tide"). The word is akin to Latin aestas ("summer").

A body of water where the tide meets a river current, especially a partly enclosed arm of the sea at the mouth of a river, is an estuary (16th century). An estuary is thus a mixture of freshwater from a river and saltwater from a sea.

Many coastal features known by other names are actually estuaries, such as Chesapeake Bay. Estuaries have provided the environments for some of the oldest civilizations on earth, including the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Nile delta, and the Ganges delta. Great cities, too, have flourished on estuaries, such as London (River Thames), New York (Hudson River), and Montreal (St. Lawrence River).

Fall
The Modern English noun fall comes from Middle English fall (13th century), from the verb fall (13th century), from Old English feallan ("to fall," before 12th century). The noun is akin to Old High German fal ("fall") and Old Norse fall ("fall").

The original meaning of fall is a falling from a height (13th century).

A precipitous descent of water is a fall (1579). The word is usually used in the plural form but with either a singular or a plural construction. Fall, or falls, is a general term, referring variously to a cascade, a cataract, or a waterfall.
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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.