Downriver

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. In a direction that follows the current of a river
2. Referring to locations or areas that lie further along the course of a river's flow
3. Moving or situated towards the mouth of a river, influenced by its current

Etymology: "Downriver" is a plain compound: "down" combined with "river." The "down" here carries its older sense of motion along a slope or with a current, so the word describes travel toward the sea, the way a flowing stream carries things away from its source. The adverb is built directly from the two English parts and needs no further borrowing to explain it. The "river" half has a longer and more winding past. It descends through Middle English "ryver" from Anglo-Norman "riviere," which came from Early Medieval Latin "riparia," a Latin formation meaning something like "bank-land" or the area along a shore. That Latin word grew from "ripa," meaning "bank" or "shore," so the notion of a river is at heart a notion of its edge. English thus took a word whose original sense was the strip of ground beside the water and attached it to the water itself.

Synonyms: downstream

Antonyms: upriver