Watercourse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A natural or artificial channel through which running surface level liquid flows from higher to lower elevation
2. A defined route for the movement of liquid that can be formed naturally or constructed by humans, guiding water from higher to lower ground
3. A waterway or channel, whether created by nature or human intervention, facilitates the downhill flow of liquid from elevated areas to lower regions

Etymology: "Watercourse" is a plain compound, built from two ordinary English words that were already in use when it was formed. "Water" comes from Old English "wæter," and "course" comes through Old French "cours" from Latin "cursus," meaning a running or a path, from "currere," to run. Put together in Middle English, the pair described a route that water runs along, which is exactly what the modern sense still means. The sense has stayed remarkably literal. A watercourse can be a natural stream or river, but it can equally be a man-made ditch, canal, or culvert, since what matters is the path the water follows rather than who dug it. The word thus names the track rather than the water itself, a distinction that the two original parts already carried.

Synonyms: stream, river, brook, creek, channel

Antonyms: dry land, desert, drought, barren, arid