Spring, Strait, Stream: Origins, Forms, and Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

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

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

Spring
Modern English spring goes all the way back to Old English spring (before 12th century). The word is akin to Old High German gispring ("spring") and Old English springan ("to spring, jump").

A source of a body of water, such as a river, or a source of a reservoir of water, such as a well, is a spring (9th century). More broadly, a spring is any natural issue of water from the earth (13th century). The word also apples to a natural fountain having specified properties (18th century); this sense is often used in the plural, as in mineral springs.

Strait
Modern English strait comes from Middle English strait (14th century), from the adjectives strait and streit (both 13th century), from Old French estreit, from Latin strictus ("strait, strict"), from the past participle of stringere ("to bind or draw tight, press together").

Strait entered English as an adjective meaning narrow or strict (13th century). The word is now archaic in those senses.

However, they led to what is still the principal use of stait as a noun: a comparatively narrow passageway connecting two larger bodies of water (1375).

The word is used for both saltwater bodies, such as the Strait(s) of Gibraltar, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and freshwater bodies, such as the Straits of Mackinac, in the Great Lakes of Michigan.

Stream
Modern English stream comes from Middle English stream (13th century) and streme (12th century), from Old English stream (before 12th century). The word is akin to Old High German stroum ("stream") and Greek rhein ("to flow").

The original meaning of stream is broad: a body of running water flowing continuously on the earth, forming a river, a rivulet, a brook, or a similar feature (9th century). Another sense of stream is the propulsive current of running water, especially the center of a body of flowing water where the current is swiftest (15th century). Some speakers use the word stream loosely to denote a body of running water smaller than a river (19th century).

A streambed (1857) is the channel occupied or formerly occupied by a stream.

A streamlet (c. 1552) is a small stream.

A streamside (1844) is the land bordering on a stream.
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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.