sewer

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an underground pipe or channel that carries away sewage or surface water, or a system of such pipes and channels

   Heavy rain overwhelmed the sewer and flooded the street.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Sewer came into Middle English from Old Northern French seuwiere, a channel that drained overflow from a fishpond. That term was based on Latin ex-, “out of,” and aqua, “water”; the English word initially denoted a watercourse for draining marshland. Sewage was formed from sewer in the mid-19th century.

From Middle English sewer, through Anglo-Norman sewere and Old French sewiere ('watercourse or overflow channel'), probably from a Vulgar Latin form built from Latin ex ('out') + aqua ('water'). The word originally named a channel for carrying water away.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary