The Language of Water: Words We Are Losing, and Why They Matter

The Edw slips through Radnorshire almost quietly, a modest river in a dramatic landscape. Yet look closer, and every bend, ripple, and bank holds a language of its own, a rich and ancient vocabulary shaped by centuries of living with water.

In the past, local people spoke about rivers with precision and poetry.There were siles for silent streams, plash pools for places where children played, and rills threading like silver across meadows. A sudden, lively current was called a freshet, while the dark, slow reaches near bends were known as drawholes. The Welsh language, too, is thick with beautiful words for water: afon for river, nant for brook, ffynnon for spring, llyn for lake.

These words were not just descriptions. They were maps of meaning, practical guides to survival, farming, and belonging. To know the difference between a leat (a man-made channel) and a burn (a natural stream) mattered. To read a riffle or a sump could mean understanding where fish would gather, or where a cart might safely cross.

Today, much of this language is slipping away. As the working relationship between people and water has thinned, so too has the vocabulary that once connected them. Where once there were many names, now there are few. Rivers become "watercourses," streams become "drains," springs are forgotten altogether.

Why does this matter? Because words shape the way we see. When we lose precise names for places and flows, we risk losing the ability to notice them at all. Without the old language, water becomes an abstract thing, something to manage, to divert, to forget until it floods.

Reviving this lost water vocabulary is not about nostalgia. It is about deepening our connection to the landscape, about seeing again what is real and alive around us.Each word recovered is a door opened

, to better understanding, better care, and a richer, more rooted sense of home.

The Edw still speaks its language. If we listen, perhaps we can learn to speak it once again.

Old and Local Words for Rivers, Streams, and Waterscapes

Afon – Welsh for a river.

Nant – Welsh for a brook or stream, often a small upland flow.

Ffynnon – Welsh for a spring or well.

Pwll – Welsh for a pool or deep spot in a river.

Llyn – Welsh for a lake.

Gwy – The Wye, one of Britain’s most famous rivers (and Radnorshire’s great river system).

Aber – The confluence of a river or stream into another body of water.

Cwm – A Welsh valley often carved by water, glacier, or rain.

Rill – A tiny natural stream, barely a trickle, running through grass or moorland.

Burn – A Scots and Border Counties word for a small stream; sometimes used in Radnorshire in older times.

Sike (or Syke) – A small seasonal stream or rill, usually dry in summer.

Gill – A narrow wooded valley with a stream running through it (common in uplands, though more northern, it touches into Radnorshire speech in older records).

Leat – A man-made water channel, often feeding a mill.

Riffle – A shallow, stony part of a river where the water breaks into ripples.

Freshet – A sudden flood or a fresh, strong flow after rain.

Spout – A waterfall or a vigorous flow from a spring.

Beck – A word for stream (mostly northern but sometimes appearing in older borderland texts).

Drawhole – A deep, dark eddy where water runs slow and circular at a river bend.

Plash – A shallow, splashing pool where water gathers.

Pill – An inlet or tidal creek; more coastal but sometimes used inland for muddy backwaters.

Torrent – A fast, dramatic rushing of water, usually in upland conditions after rain.

Scour – The action of water eroding soil or stone, or the hollow it creates.

Slack – A quiet, slow section of river.

Dingle – A deep, narrow, often wooded valley, usually with a stream.

Meander – A natural looping curve in the course of a river across a flat valley floor.

Thalweg – The deepest channel of a river, often invisible but important.

Overfall – A sudden drop in riverbed causing a miniature fall or rapid.

Wath – A ford or shallow crossing place (Yorkshire word, but similar crossings called "wads" or "wades" in Radnorshire old English speech).

Sump – A still, deep, sometimes eerie pool at the bottom of a riverbed or hollow.

Catchment – The area of land where rainfall drains into a particular river.