Waterway

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A navigable channel of water used for transportation or travel, such as a river, canal, or strait
2. A constructed or natural route for boats and ships designed for navigation, which includes rivers, canals, and sometimes streams
3. An aquatic passage that enables vessels to traverse from one location to another, incorporating features like rivers, lakes, and canals

Etymology: The word is a plain compound of two very old English building blocks, and its parts have changed far less than its meaning has. "Water" and "way" both come from Old English, and together they formed "wæterweġ," a road or route that happened to run over water rather than over land. The same pairing turns up across the Germanic languages, which is a sign of how naturally early speakers reached for it: Dutch "waterweg," German "Wasserweg," and Swedish "vattenväg" all describe the same idea with the same two parts. In Old English, "weg" meant a path or road, so the compound was literally a water-road. Its modern sense has stretched well beyond a single stretch of river. Today it covers natural channels like rivers and lakes as well as artificial ones such as canals, and it is used for any navigable route that vessels can follow, whatever its banks look like.

Synonyms: canal, river, stream, channel, watercourse