Eau

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /juː/

Definitions

1. A French term meaning water, often used in culinary contexts to refer to liquids or broths
2. Used in various phrases to denote a light or subtle essence, especially in scents and flavorings
3. Referring to a type of perfume or fragrance derived from extracts of aromatic plants or oils

Etymology: The English word "eau" is a borrowing from French, where "eau" simply means "water." English already had its own word for water, "ea" from Old English, meaning running water or a stream, which descends from the same ancient root as Latin "aqua." So the two words are cousins: one came into English through the native Germanic line, the other was taken from French, and both trace back to the same Proto-Indo-European source. Latin "aqua" and French "eau" are doublets, two forms of one word that arrived by different routes. The French word passed through Old French forms such as "ewe" and "egua" before settling into its modern spelling. Its spelling in English was shaped by the French form, even though the native English "ea" is not derived from it. That explains why the old English word and the French loanword look so alike despite having separate histories. In modern English, "eau" is used mostly in the phrase "eau de toilette" and similar perfume names, where the French word keeps its original sense of water. The perfume meaning comes from the words that follow it, not from any change in "eau" itself.