Origin and history of afanc

Old English wæter, from Proto-Germanic *watr- (source also of Old Saxon watar, Old Frisian wetir, Dutch water, Old High German wazzar, German Wasser, Old Norse vatn, Gothic wato "water"), from PIE *wod-or, suffixed form of root *wed- (1) "water; wet." In ancient conceptions one of the handful of basic elements of which everything is composed.

To have one's head above water (and thus avoid drowning) is by 1660s; in the figurative sense "out of difficulty" it is recorded from 1742.

Water-cure for healing therapies involving water is by 1842. The crowd-control water-cannon is so called by 1964; water-fountain "drinking fountain" is by 1946. Water-buffalo is attested by 1894. Water polo is attested from 1884; water torture from 1928.

Waters for "seas of a particular region," especially "maritime claims of a nation," is by 1650s.

Linguists believe PIE had two root words for water: *ap- and *wed-. The first (preserved in Sanskrit apah as well as Punjab and julep) was "animate," referring to water as a living force; the latter referred to it as an inanimate substance. The same probably was true of fire (n.).

English river name, from Celtic abona "river," from *ab- "water" (see afanc). Of the at least four rivers in England and two in Scotland that bear the name, Shakespeare's is the Warwickshire Avon.

"between two rivers" (usually, if not exclusively, with reference to Mesopotamia), 1774, from Late Latin interamnius, from inter "between" (see inter-) + amnis "a river," a word perhaps of Celtic origin (see afanc).