OuseRiver

Ouse River (o͞oz)

1. also Great Ouse River A river, about 249 km (155 mi) long, rising in south-central England and meandering east and northeast to the Wash, an inlet of the North Sea.

2. A river, about 97 km (60 mi) long, of northeast England flowing southeast to join the Trent River and form the Humber River. It is an important commercial waterway.

 

Word History: Ouse is a perfectly appropriate name for a river, but one whose etymological meaning is likely to raise a smile. The English name for the river derives from its Celtic name Ūsa, from *udso-, “water,” which derives from the Indo-European root *wed-, “wet, water” (and the same root from which we derive water and wet). Thus the Ouse River etymologically is the “Water River” or the “Wet River.” Of course, the English who borrowed the name from the Celts did not know the meaning of the word—as is rather frequently the case when foreign topographical terms are borrowed.

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