This week's theme: toponyms -- words derived from the names of places. artesian (ahr-TEE-zhuhn) adjective
Pertaining to a well that has water rising to the surface under natural pressure, without the need of a pump. [After Artois, a former province in France, where many such wells were drilled.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=artesian -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "When settlers first came to Pullman, they found artesian water bubbling out of the ground. A hundred years later, those springs are gone, and the source of this hydrological abundance continues to drop 1.5 feet per year. Water mining is just that -- and sooner or later, someone's going to have to pay the piper." Chuck Pezeshki; Seattle Post-Intelligencer; WSU, Enviros Teeing Off Over Water Rights; Sep 5, 2007. This newsletter is made possible in part by these sponsors: Why aren't we just happy, we're happy as a clam? Orijinz, a new game about word and phrase origins. A great holiday gift! $12.95. http://entspire.com Subscribe to http://delanceyplace.com -- a carefully selected non-fiction book excerpt free to your email each day. It's the thinking person's daily quotation. ............................................................................ Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988) Share the magic of words. Send a gift sub: http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html Remove, change, or subscribe address: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/artesian.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/artesian.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/artesian.html This message was sent to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
