Vale, Valley, Vault, Vein, Wadi: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning Valley, Cave

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place"). Topographic features have acquired a wide range of descriptive names.

Valleys and caves, for example, as well as related natural features and human-made structures, are known by many words in English. In the current alphabetic series of such terms, the next examples are vale, valley, vault, vein, and wadi.

Vale
Modern English vale comes from Middle English vale (14th century), from Middle French vale, from Old French val, from Latin valles, vallis. The word may be akin to Latin volvere ("to roll").

A wide, flat valley, or an extensive tract of land lying between two ranges of hills, is a vale (14th century). A vale usually has a river or stream running through it.

Valley
Modern English valley (16th century) comes from Middle English valey (14th century), from Old French valee, from Latin val ("valley"). The word may be akin to Latin volvere ("to roll").

A long depression or hollow lying between hills, mountains, or stretches of high ground is a valley (14th century). Like a vale, a valley usually has a river or stream flowing through its bottom area. A valley is generally distinguished from a vale by having less width and being surrounded by steeper slopes.

Vault
Modern English vault (16th century) comes from Middle English voute (14th century), from Middle French voute, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin volvita ("to turn, vault"), from the feminine of volvitus, an alteration of Latin volutus, the past participle of volvere ("to roll").

The original meaning of vault is an arched structure usually forming a roof (14th century).

A vault is also an underground room or passage covered by an arched structure (14th century); a usually underground burial chamber, originally with an arched roof (16th century); and a natural cave or cavern (16th century).

Vein
Modern English vein (17th century) comes from Middle English veine (14th century) and veyne (13th century), from Old French veine, from Latin vena.

The most familiar meaning of vein is a blood vessel (c. 1300).

A natural narrow channel carrying water within the earth is also a vein (c. 1290).

Wadi
Wadi entered English in the 19th century from Arabic wadiy.

A wadi (1839) is a bed or valley created by a stream in areas of southwestern Asia and northern Africa that are usually dry except during the rainy season. A wadi often forms an oasis. Extended, the word wadi refers to any shallow, usually sharply defined depression in a desert region.
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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.