Water Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘sea’ and now look at ‘water’.

Water tower is first recorded at the end of the 13th century.

Watering can is first seen in 1690, although water can had been in use for at least three centuries prior to that.

Water hole is recorded by 1670.

Watering place has been recorded since the middle of the 15th century, but not until 1965 did it take on the meaning of a public house or similar.

Hot water was just that until 1530, when it became used to mean ‘in trouble’.

Hot water bottles became popular from 1813 for stone or earthenware warmers; from 1853 the softer version of vulcanised rubber was introduced.

Waterpipes have been in use for millennia, but not referred to as same until the end of the 14th century.

Water closets are named from 1755, although the flush toilet had been produced two centuries earlier by Sir John Harrington.

As a noun the water ski is recorded from 1931, as a verb it had to wait until 1953 – hence the question is, what were they doing on water skis for more than two decades.

The water table, the level of water underground where the rock/soil is saturated, has only been known as such since 1879.

A water moccasin is a snake found in the southern USA, described as such in 1821.

The water wheel, the means of powering a watermill, is first recorded around the end of the 14th century. Around this time mills were powered by wind as well as water, and thus the mill wheel would have suggested a water-powered construction.

Dish water, that water used to wash the pots and pans, comes from the late 15th century; but the term came to be used for anything overly weak (be it broth, soup, coffee, tea) from 1719.

Watermarks on paper are not made by water, but the term was coined in 1708.

Watershed in the figurative sense has been known since 1878, although today it is rarely used to refer to anything but a cut-off point for broadcasting.

We all know what a waterbed is, although does anyone realize its introduction in the 1970s was a reinventing? In 1844 the same technology was employed for invalids in order to reduce or prevent bed sores; and the original sense was simply a bed on board a ship, used since 1610.

Water colour originally referred to a pigment soluble in water; only since 1854 has it been used in the art world.

The waterline on a vessel has been used since 1620; since 2011 I’m told it also refers to the inner rim of the eyelid when applying makeup.

Nothing was described as waterproof until 1799, although they must have been waterproof or their boats would have sunk.