winterbourne

See also: Winterbourne

English

WOTD – 22 March 2023

Etymology

From winter +‎ bourne (“seasonal brook or stream”), partly also from the placenames Winterborne, Winterbourne, which are derived from Old English winterburna (“stream that is full in winter”), from winter (from Proto-Germanic *wintruz, further etymology uncertain) + burna (“stream”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”)). The Old English word appears to have survived only in placenames.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntəbɔːn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntɚˌboɹn/, [-ɾɚ-]
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntɚˌbɝn/, [ˈwɪ̃.ɾɚˌbɝːn]
• Hyphenation: win‧ter‧bourne

Noun

winterbourne (plural winterbournes)

1. (British) A stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.
   • 1848, [Charles Kingsley], “The Philosophy of Fox-hunting”, in Yeast: A Problem. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, pages 14–15:

     [F]rom the graveyard itself burst up one of those noble springs known as winter-bournes in the chalk ranges, which, awakened in autumn from the abysses to which it had shrunk during the summer's drought, was hurrying down upon its six months' course, a broad sheet of oily silver, over a temporary channel of smooth green sward.

Related terms

• eylebourn, nailbourne (Britain, dialectal)

Translations

stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather

• Finnish: talvella virtaava joki (river that flows in winter)
• Macedonian: зи́мска ре́ка f (zímska réka) (river that flows in winter), зи́мски по́ток m (zímski pótok) (stream that flows in winter)
• Welsh: nant hafesb f, gaeafnant f

Further reading

• winterbourne (stream) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia