Pours

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transfer a fluid from one vessel to another while causing it to flow freely
2. To release a liquid in a steady stream from a container, enabling it to flow outward
3. To cause a liquid to flow steadily from one container into another

Etymology: "Pours" is simply the third-person singular present form of the verb "pour," so its story is really the story of "pour" itself. Here the surprise is how many words it replaced. Middle English had several verbs for pouring, including "schenchen" or "schenken," "yeten," "birlen," "hellen," and "temen," and "pour" eventually displaced them all. The verb "pour" itself is of uncertain origin. It may come from Old Northern French "purer," meaning "to sift grain" or "pour out water," which in turn may trace back to Latin "purare," "to purify," from "purus," "pure." The link to purity is not obvious, but the idea of sifting or straining clear liquid may explain it. Middle Dutch "afpuren," meaning "to pour off" or "drain," offers a comparison. The older verbs it pushed aside have clearer ancestry. "Schenken" came from Old English "sċenċan" and Old Norse "skenkja," both rooted in a Proto-Germanic form, and survives in dialect as "shink" and "skink." "Yeten" descends from Old English "ġēotan," while "birlen" comes from Old English "byrelian," meaning to serve drink.

Synonyms: spills, streams, flows, discharges, delivers

Antonyms: collects, gathers, stops, holds, contains