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drinkwater

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Drinkwater¹

Where it comes from

From drink + water, a nickname given to a pauper or miser, unable or unwilling to afford beer; or alternatively, a nickname given to an innkeeper or a noted tippler.

proper noun Drinkwaters

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.

drinkwater²

Where it comes from

From Middle English drinkwater (attested as a nickname), equivalent to drink + water. Compare Saterland Frisian Drinkwoater (“drinkwater”), West Frisian drinkwetter (“drinkwater”), Dutch drinkwater (“drinkwater”), German Low German Drinkwater (“drinkwater”), German Trinkwasser (“drinkwater”).

noun

  1. uncountable Potable water; water intended for drinking In very dry seasons some drinkwater is brought from wells dug in the bed of the river, about half-an hour from the village.

    Similar: drinking water

adjective

  1. not comparable, of a place Small, rural, and insignificant. And for a moment it seemed that everything would be all right, that we were traveling back in time to that idyllic farm near a drinkwater town in Iowa, back to my boyhood, and that Mina would always smile up at me from her bed.

    Similar: backwater, podunk, jerkwater

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name equivalent surnames in other languages

FrançaisBoileau
ItalianoBevilacqua

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MLA

"drinkwater." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/drinkwater. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

drinkwater. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/drinkwater

Chicago

"drinkwater." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/drinkwater.

BibTeX
@misc{drinkwater_2026,
  title = {drinkwater},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/drinkwater},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}