Ea

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old English term for a river or stream of running water ; Ea, the Babylonian deity associated with fresh water, craft and wisdom
2. A archaic name for a flowing river or body of water ; the Mesopotamian god who ruled the waters and the arts of wisdom
3. Old word meaning a river or watercourse ; a principal god of Mesopotamian myth, lord of the deep waters and of knowledge

Etymology: The word "ea" is an Old English noun meaning "river," a sense that survives today only in poetry and in place names. Its ancestor, Proto-Germanic "ahwō," meant "waters" or "river," and it traces back to a prehistoric root for flowing water that also gave Latin "aqua," so English "ea" and the "aqua" of aquariums and aqueducts are distant relatives. The word's surviving life is mostly in the landscape. Because the word was once common, it persisted in English place names, and it is still found in names such as Chelsea, which goes back to a Old English "cealc" joined with "ea," meaning chalk landing, though readers should be aware the exact sense of such compounds is traditionally reconstructed rather than fully certain. Its relatives are spread across the North Sea region: Dutch "a," German "Ache," Swedish and Danish "å," and Icelandic "á" all mean a stream or river. The Swedish and Danish forms have the same spelling as the Scandinavian word for a brook, which shows how closely these northern languages kept the ancient term.

Synonyms: river, stream