watermark

Etymology

It is formed from English water + mark.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares German Wassermarke for marks of the water level (from 1616); in the sense of a mark in paper the German word is recorded from 1785, though German Wasserzeichen (1807) is the usual one.^[2] The verb comes from the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mark made to note the level water reaches in a container: 1571, in T. Digges's part of L. Digges's Pantometria, a rare sense now obsolete.^[2] The sense of the usual level of a river or the tide follows in Holinshed's Chronicles (1577).^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the water-level sense to 1640,^[4] Dictionary.com the word to 1625–35,^[6] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 17th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first senses all concern water: the level water stands at or reaches (1577), the mark left by a flood (1599), and in Scotland a boundary between the waters of different rivers (1632–37).^[2][7] From 1660 the level became figurative, a standard against which something is measured, as in high-water mark.^[2] Johnson (1755) knew only the flood sense, "the utmost limit of the rise of the flood", with a quotation from Dryden.^[8] The sense of a design pressed into paper during manufacture, the main modern one, is recorded from 1708 in T. Hearne's Remarks and Collections.^[2][3] It is not made by water: the OED thinks it was so called because the mark, less opaque than the rest of the sheet, looks as if water had made it,^[2] and Etymonline likewise suggests that it looks like a wet spot.^[3] The word then named the metal device that makes the mark (1849) and a rippled pattern like that of watered silk (1893).^[2] The verb, to mark paper with a watermark, appears around 1800;^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1866.^[3] Since the 1990s a digital watermark has been code hidden in an image, video or sound file to show who owns it.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1571 – a mark noting the level of water in a container (rare, obsolete).^[2]
• 1577 – the level at which a river or the tide usually stands, or a line marking it.^[2]
• 1599 – the level reached by floodwater, or the mark it leaves.^[2]
• 1632 – in Scotland, a boundary between the waters of different rivers (obsolete by 1637).^[2][7]
• 1660 – figurative, a standard or benchmark.^[2]
• 1708 – a design impressed in paper during manufacture.^[2][3]
• 1754 – the level of a ship's draught.^[2]
• c. 1800 – verb, to impress paper with a watermark.^[2]
• 1849 – the metal device that impresses the mark.^[2]
• 1893 – a rippled pattern, as on watered silk.^[2]
• 1994 – code embedded in a digital file as a mark of ownership.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A design or mark pressed into paper during manufacture, visible when the sheet is held up to the light: The banknote's watermark showed a portrait.^{[10][4][2][9]}
2. The metal device that makes such a mark.^[9][2]
3. (computing) Information embedded in a digital image, video or sound file, often to identify its owner.^[9][2]
4. A mark showing the height to which water has risen or usually rises; a waterline or tidemark.^{[4][9][10][2]}
5. A standard or level against which something is measured; a benchmark.^[2]

Verb

1. To mark paper with a watermark.^[10][4][2]
2. To impress a design as a watermark.^[4][2]

Word family

• unwatermarked

Related words

• high-water mark
• waterline
• tidemark

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 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 d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins