rivulet

Etymology

It is probably of several origins.^[2] It is partly borrowed from Latin rīvulus (“small stream”), with -et added,^[2][3][4] and partly, in later use, borrowed from Italian rivoletto (“small stream, brook”).^{[2][3][5][6][7]} The revised OED adds that it is partly an alteration of the earlier riveret, under the influence of the Latin and perhaps the Italian word,^[2] and Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Weekley make that alteration the main source.^{[8][9][10][11]} That older noun is formed from river and the same suffix, after Middle French riverete,^[2] and Weekley notes that river and the Latin word are not really connected.^[11] The Italian word, which the OED finds only from before 1642, is a diminutive of rivolo, recorded from before 1320 and itself from rīvulus,^[2] the diminutive of rīvus (“stream, brook”).^[12][3][13] Etymonline takes the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *rei- (“to run, flow”),^[5] and Barnhart compares Old Irish riathor (“waterfall”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small river or stream: 1577, in W. Harrison's Historicall Description of the Islande of Britayne.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word to 1587,^[3][13] and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The older riveret stayed in use beside it for a long time: the OED records that word from before 1552 to 1807.^[2] It soon spread to other things running in thin streams, from 1589 in the OED's dating;^[2] Johnson (1755), who defines it as a small river or brook, also quotes Bentley on the veins as "innumerable little rivulets".^[14] Sweat and melted snow still run in rivulets in modern quotations.^[9][13] In 1809 the word appears in Haworth's Lepidoptera Britannica as a name for small geometrid moths, apparently because of the white wavy markings on their wings.^[2]

Timeline

• 1577 – a small river, a stream.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1587.^[3][13]
• 1589 – in extended use, of other things that run in a thin stream.^[2]
• 1809 – a small geometrid moth.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small stream; a brook: A rivulet crossed the path below the farm.^[6][13][2]
2. A thin stream of any liquid: Rivulets of rainwater ran down the windowpane.^[13][9]
3. (entomology) Any of several small moths of Eurasia, of the genera Perizoma and Discoloxia, with white wavy markings on brownish forewings.^[2]

Related words

• rival
• riveret
• derive
• river

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 m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.