aqueduct

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin aquaeductus (“a conveyance of water, a conduit”), properly the phrase aquae ductus,^[2][3][4][5] from aqua (“water”), here in the genitive, and ductus (“a leading, conducting”),^[3][5][6][7] from dūcō (“to lead”).^[3][2][7] Etymonline traces these to Proto-Indo-European *akwa- (“water”) and Proto-Indo-European *deuk- (“to lead”).^[3] The immediate source may also be obsolete French aqueduct, now aqueduc:^{[8][9][10][11]} the Oxford Dictionary of English takes the English word from it,^[11] while the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and Weekley leave the choice open.^[8][9][10] Dictionary.com goes through Medieval Latin aquēductus.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

An artificial channel for carrying water: Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1538, in Leland's Itinerary,^[4][6] while the OED, in an entry not yet revised, cites the same work as before 1552.^[2] Etymonline has the 1530s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon used figuratively, from 1646.^[2] Johnson (1755) described it as a structure that keeps water level across uneven ground, some aqueducts running underground and others raised on arches, and quoted Addison on the ruins of old Rome.^[13] Anatomists took it up in 1712 for small canals in the head of mammals,^[2] and since 1791 it has also been a bridge carrying a canal across a river.^[2]

Timeline

• 1538 – an artificial channel for water.^[4][6] The OED has before 1552.^[2]
• 1646 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1712 – in anatomy, a small canal in the body.^[2]
• 1791 – a bridge carrying a canal over a river.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artificial channel or conduit that carries water over a long distance, especially a raised structure of masonry: A stone aqueduct carried spring water across the valley.^[14][6][2]
2. A bridge that carries a canal over a river or valley.^[14][6][2]
3. (anatomy) A small canal or passage in the body, especially the one linking the third and fourth ventricles of the brain.^[14][6][8]

Word family

• aqueduct of Sylvius

Related words

• viaduct
• aqua
• aquatic
• duct
• duke
• conduit
• conduct

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins