rainwater

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rein water,^[2][3] inherited from Old English regnwæter, also rēnwæter,^[2][4][5][6] formed from regn (“rain”) and wæter (“water”),^[5][7] that is, from the words that became rain and water.^[7][6] The OED counts it as inherited from Germanic, cognate with or formed like West Frisian reinwetter, Middle Dutch regenwater (now regenwater), Middle Low German regenwater, Old High German regenwazzar (now German Regenwasser), Old Norse regnvatn, Swedish regnvatten and Danish regnvand.^[8][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Water that falls from the clouds as rain: early Old English, in Bald's Leechbook,^[8] where remedies call for filling with rainwater and for a bath of rainwater.^[4] Merriam-Webster dates the word to before the 12th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com to before 1000.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed the same since Old English.^[8][7] It was occasionally used with a or in the plural, for a fall of rain, a use now obsolete.^[8] Dictionaries stress that it is water that has not sunk into the earth,^[7] and so has gathered few dissolved minerals and is soft,^[5][9] in contrast to spring water or tap water.^[10][5] Rainwater goods are the gutters and pipes that carry rainwater off a building.^[6]

Timeline

• early Old English – water fallen as rain, in Bald's Leechbook.^[8][4]
• Middle English – the form rein water.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Water that has fallen as rain, as opposed to water from a spring, a well or the tap; it holds little dissolved mineral matter and so is soft: They collect rainwater in a barrel for the garden.^{[10][5][9][8]}
2. rainwater goods: the gutters and pipes that carry rainwater away from a building.^[6]

Related words

• rain
• water

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins