winterbourne
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
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɪntəbɔːn/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɪntɚˌboɹn/, [-ɾɚ-]
- (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈwɪntɚˌbɝn/, [ˈwɪ̃.ɾɚ.ˌbɝːn]
- Hyphenation: win‧ter‧bourne
Noun
winterbourne (plural winterbournes)
- (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[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, pages 14–15:
- [F]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.
Related terms
- eylebourn, nailbourne (Britain, dialectal)
Translations
References
- “winterbourne, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “winterbourne, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
- winterbourne (stream) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
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