prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (words are sexy)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2013-09-20 07:17 am

riparian

riparian (rye-PAIR-ee-uhn) - adj., of, pertaining to, or located on the bank of a river or stream.


A well-known word locally, as in the desert, riparian areas are key habitats, in danger because of agriculture and urban water use. Riverine is a close synonym, but not quite, as riparian specifically means of the banks rather than the river itself. Adopted in 1841 from Latin rīpārius, relating to a riverbank, from rīpa, the bank of a river. (Though river itself also comes from rīpārius, via an Anglo-Norman softening of that -p-.)

---L.

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