Meander, Meltwater, Mere: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place"). Rivers, lakes, and related freshwater bodies are important examples of topographic features.

In the current alphabetic series of words that name such freshwater features, here are the origins, forms, and histories of meander, meltwater, and mere. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Meander
Meander entered English in the 16th century from Latin maeander, from Greek maiandros. The ancient Greeks derived the generic word from their name for a river in Asia Minor, the Maiandros (now Menderes), famous for its many windings. The Romans followed with their Latin words Maeander and maeander.

A meander is a turn or winding in a stream (late 16th century).The term is especially applied to a distinctly U-shaped bend occurring in a series.

Meanders form in areas having soft, movable sediments deposited by the stream. They often result from a downstream obstruction that causes upstream pressure, forcing the stream to bend in places.

An extremely curved meander is called, because of its shape, an oxbow. If the stream breaks through the oxbow, the new channel is called a cutoff. If silting seals off the former meander bend, the new body of water is called an oxbow lake. If silt deposits fill the lake, the result will be a marsh or a meander scar.

Meltwater
Meltwater (1923) is water derived from the melting of ice and snow. It serves as one of the principal sources of water for lakes, rivers, streams, and other natural bodies of water.

Mere
Modern English mere goes all the way back to Old English mere (before 12th century). The word is akin to Old High German meri ("sea") and Latin mare ("sea").

Mere is an old, poetic-sounding word with several different water-related senses.

Two formerly important meanings of mere are now obsolete. The original meaning, as suggested by its relationship with the Old High German and Latin words listed above, is a sea (before 12th century, obsolete). By extension, the word also means an arm of a sea, an inlet (16th century, also obsolete).

Two senses of mere are still commonly used, mainly in Great Britain and especially in dialects: an expanse of standing water, such as a lake or a pool (before 12th century); and a marsh (14th century).
__________________________________

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.