meander

Etymology

First recorded in the 1570s in the now obsolete sense “confusion, intricacy”,^[1][2] borrowed from Latin maeander (“a winding course”),^[1][3] from Ancient Greek μαίανδρος (maíandros),^[4][5] from Maíandros, the name of a river in Asia Minor (now the Menderes) noted for its winding course.^[2][5][6] The Greeks already used the name figuratively for winding patterns.^[1]

In English it was applied to rivers from the 1590s;^[1] the verb “to wander aimlessly” (1831) was perhaps influenced by maunder.^[1]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. [1] [2] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. [1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. [1] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org