winterbourne

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See also: Winterbourne

English

WOTD – 22 March 2023

Etymology

From winter +‎ bourne (“seasonal brook or stream”), partly also from the placenames Winterborne, Winterbourne, which are derived from Old English winterburna (“stream that is full in winter”),[1] from winter (from Proto-Germanic *wintruz, further etymology uncertain) + burna (“stream”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”)). The Old English word appears to have survived only in placenames.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

winterbourne (plural winterbournes)

  1. (British) A stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.
    • 1848, [Charles Kingsley], “The Philosophy of Fox-hunting”, in Yeast: A Problem. , London: John W Parker, , published 1851, →OCLC, pages 14–15:
      rom the graveyard itself burst up one of those noble springs known as winter-bournes in the chalk ranges, which, awakened in autumn from the abysses to which it had shrunk during the summer's drought, was hurrying down upon its six months' course, a broad sheet of oily silver, over a temporary channel of smooth green sward.

Translations

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “winterbourne, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “winterbourne, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

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