Shallow, Shoal, Shoot, Sike, Sitch: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

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

Freshwater natural features have accumulated a wide range of colorful names. In the current alphabetic series of words that refer to such freshwater features, here are the origins, forms, and histories of shallow, shoal, shoot, sike, and sitch. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Shallow
The noun shallow (16th century) comes from the Modern English adjective shallow (16th century), from Middle English schalowe (14th century). The word is probably akin to Old English sceald ("shallow," before 12th century, see shoal below).

As an adjective, shallow means having little depth (14th century).

A shallow place or area in a body of water is a shallow (1571). The word is usually used in the plural but with either a singular or a plural construction.

Shoal
The Old English adjective sceald ("shallow," before 12th century) yielded many different adjective forms, which, used as absolutes, eventually became nouns. The noun forms included shelde (14th century), schald (14th century), sholde (15th century), and shol(e) (16th century). The last form evolved into Modern English shoal (17th century).

Shoal denotes a place where a natural body of water, such as a river, is shallow; or a sandbank or sandbar that makes the water shallow (1555). The same sense was also used in earlier forms of the word, such as shelde (14th century) and sholde (15th century).

Shoot
The water-related noun shoot (17th century) probably comes by way of folk etymology, influenced by English shoot, from French chute ("waterfall").

A sudden and heavy rush of water down a steep channel, or a place where a stream runs or descends quickly, is known as a shoot (early 17th century). The word is also applied to an artificial channel or passage that produces a similar effect (early 18th century).

Sike, Sitch
Sike and sitch are British dialectal words with the same meaning: a small stream, especially one that flows through flat or marshy ground and dries up in the summer. In former times, the words were mainly used to describe such a natural feature when it served as a boundary between properties.

The words also have the same origin: Old English sic, akin to Old Norse sik ("slow stream") and Old English sicerian ("to trickle"). In dialects of northern England and Scotland, Old English sic became Middle English syke (14th century) and Modern English sike (17th century). In dialects of southern and midland England, Old English sic became Middle English siche (15th century) and Modern English sitch (19th century).
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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.