Revetments

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Structures built to protect landscapes from erosion or damage by water, usually made from solid materials like stone or concrete
2. Designed to provide stability to shorelines, these features often use hard materials to counteract the effects of erosion and wave activity
3. Structures that safeguard land from the adverse effects of erosion caused by water, typically constructed from durable elements such as concrete or stone

Etymology: The plural "revetments" is simply the form of "revetment," so the word's story is really the story of that singular noun. It began in Latin as "vestire," meaning "to clothe," and the prefix "re-" added the sense of doing something again, giving Late Latin "revestire," "to clothe again." From there it passed into Old French as "revestir," and the derived noun "revestiment" became the French "revêtement," a covering or facing laid over something else. That covering idea is the key to the engineering meaning. A revetment is literally a layer dressed over the face of a bank or slope, so that the underlying earth is protected from the water and waves that would otherwise wear it away. English borrowed the word from French, so the clothing metaphor carried over intact: stone or concrete is draped over the soil like a garment, and the shoreline is in effect re-clothed.

Synonyms: embankments, retaining walls, bulwarks, barricades, ramparts