Wehr

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A structure built across a river or stream to control or raise the water level ; a barrier used to regulate flow or to divert water for irrigation or milling ; a dam-like construction intended to manage water currents or provide flood control
2. A barrier placed in a watercourse to retain or redirect water ; a man-made obstruction for water management in rivers or canals ; a controlling device in waterways for flood prevention or energy utilization
3. A hydraulic installation that obstructs or diverts river flow ; an engineered barrier for purposes such as water retention or channeling ; a dam-like construction utilized for river management and environmental control

Etymology: "Wehr" is a German noun meaning a weir, and its history is mostly the story of a verb that once meant "to defend." The Old High German "werien" (and related Germanic forms) meant to keep off, ward off, or protect, and the same root gave English "ward" and "warn" as well as German "wehren," to resist or defend oneself. A "Wehr" was, in this sense, a defence or a protective structure, and the watercourse meaning grew out of that idea of holding something back. English has the same word, "weir," which came from Old English "wer" or "wær," meaning a dam or fence across a river used to catch fish. The Old English noun belongs to the same Germanic family, so "wehr" and "weir" are cognates, related words descended from a common ancestor rather than borrowings of one another. The English spelling has been "weir" since the Middle Ages, with the original sense of a barrier kept across water still intact.

Synonyms: dam, weir