freshwater

See also: Freshwater, fresh water, and fresh-water

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *preyskosder.

Proto-Germanic *friskaz

Proto-West Germanic *frisk

Old English fersċ

Middle English fressh

English fresh

Proto-Indo-European *wed-

Proto-Indo-European *-r̥

Proto-Indo-European *wódr̥

Proto-Germanic *watōr

Proto-West Germanic *watar

Old English wæter

Middle English water

English water

English freshwater

From Middle English freche watur, fresshe water; equivalent to fresh +‎ water.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔːtə(ɹ)/
• (General American)
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɑtər/
  • (without the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔtər/
• Hyphenation: fresh‧wa‧ter

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

freshwater (not comparable)

1. Living in fresh water.

   The trout is a freshwater fish.

2. Consisting of fresh water.

   Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of volume.

3. (nautical) Unskilled as a seaman.
   • 1858, R M Ballantyne, The Coral Island:

     “Mate,” said the captain in a low voice, “you talk like a fresh-water sailor. I can only attribute this shyness to some strange delusion, for surely,”—his voice assumed a slightly sneering tone as he said this—“surely I am not to suppose that you have become soft-hearted! […]

4. (US, economics) Neoclassical, in reference to the macroeconomics and economic departments near the Great Lakes.
   • 2012, John Quiggin, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, Princeton University Press (expanded paperback ed., 1st ed. from 2010), →ISBN, page 86.

     Meanwhile, the freshwater side of the dispute rapidly reverted to arguments from the nineteenth century, which had been debunked by Keynes and Irving Fisher.

   Synonym: sweetwater

Hypernyms

• aquatic

Hyponyms

• lentic
• lotic
• wetland

Derived terms

• freshwater crayfish
• freshwater drum
• freshwater hydra
• freshwater lens
• freshwater pearl mussel
• freshwater shark
• freshwater soldier
• North American freshwater catfish
• The Freshwater

Translations

living in fresh water

• Afrikaans: varswater
• Bulgarian: сладководен (sladkovoden)
• Czech: sladkovodní (cs)
• Danish: ferskvands-
• Finnish: makean veden
• French: dulçaquicole (fr), dulcicole (fr)
• Galician: de auga doce f
• Georgian: მტკნარი წყლის (mṭḳnari c̣q̇lis)
• German: Süßwasser-
• Hungarian: édesvízi (hu)
• Irish: fionnuisce
• Italian: acqua dolce
• Malay: air tawar (ms)
• Malayalam: ശുദ്ധജല (ml) (śuddhajala)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ferskvanns-

  Nynorsk: ferskvass-

• Pannonian Rusyn: сладководни (sladkovodni)
• Polish: słodkowodny (pl)
• Romanian: de apă dulce
• Russian: пресново́дный (ru) (presnovódnyj)
• Southern Altai: тус јок суулу (tus ǰok suulu)
• Spanish: dulceacuícola (es)
• Swedish: sötvattens-

consisting of fresh water

• Bulgarian: сладководен (sladkovoden)
• Danish: ferskvands-
• Finnish: makeavetinen
• German: Süßwasser-
• Irish: fionnuisce
• Malayalam: ശുദ്ധജലം (ml) (śuddhajalaṁ)
• Pannonian Rusyn: сладководни (sladkovodni)
• Polish: słodkowodny (pl)

unskilled as seaman

• Finnish: järvi- (fi), sisävesi-
• French: marin d'eau douce (fr) m
• Galician: mariño de auga doce
• Irish: úruisce m

Noun

freshwater (countable and uncountable, plural freshwaters)

1. (countable) A body of fresh water.
   • 1953, Publications of the Institute of Marine Science, volumes 3-4, page 100:

     Fossils with low Sr/Ca ratios indicating origin in a freshwater of a type which has a low Sr/Ca ratio: […]

   • 1967, Bent J. Muus, The Fauna of Danish Estuaries and Lagoons‎^[1], page 87:

     Smith (1958) found that N. limnicola in Lake Merced, virtually a freshwater, had no paragnaths or at the most one on section I against the "normal" 1–2.

   • 2013, Brian R. Moss, Ecology of Fresh Waters: A View for the Twenty-First Century:

     The chances of long-term preservation of fossils in freshwaters are minimal, for freshwaters are readily disturbed and destroyed by drought on the land masses.

   • 2015, Sophie Lake, Durwyn Liley, Robert Still, Britain's Habitats:

     Freshwaters are portrayed in many artforms, including books such as Kenneth Grahame's childrens'^[sic] story Wind in the Willows.

3. Alternative form of fresh water.
   • 1978, Roger M. Waller, John T. Turk, Robert J. Dingman, “Potential effects of deep-well waste disposal in western New York”, in Geological Survey Professional Paper, page 21:

     Schematic diagram of the viscosity effect during the injection of freshwater.

   • 2002, Friedrich A. Schott, Physical Oceanography of the Indian Ocean During WOCE‎^[2], page 1246:

     Above 200m, high-salinity water was being carried southward out of the Arabian Sea. This implies that most of the freshwater was imported into the Arabian Sea in the upper layer.

   • 2011, Guy Levy, P. Fine, A. Bar-Tal, Treated Wastewater in Agriculture‎^[3]:

     Actual field data of Cl distribution in soil after irrigation with TWW and freshwater were obtained in a field experiment in Israel (Feigin et al., 2005; Fine et al. 2007).

   • 2014 April 20, Richard Conniff, “An evolutionary family drama”, in The New York Times‎^[4]:

     Alewives are anadromous fish: Born in freshwater, they spend their lives in the ocean, returning annually to their birthplaces to spawn.

Translations

body of fresh water

• Finnish: makean veden vesistö
• Irish: fionnuisce m

fresh water — see fresh water