creek

Signification (Anglais)

1. A small inlet or bay, often saltwater, narrower and extending farther into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river; the inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.
2. A stream of water (often freshwater) smaller than a river and larger than a brook; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.
3. Any turn or winding.

Concepts

ruisseau

crique

baie

anse

calanque

golfe

bras de rivière

fr

petit cours d’eau

ru

ruisselet

orifice d’entrée

petit bras de mer

fiord

Synonymes

stream

brook

river

cove

inlet

bay

bight

rivulet

mountain stream

burn

gulf

rill

back-water

channel

beck

spring

backwater

runlet

sand

sound

🔉

streamlet

tributary

waterway

wick

engpass

small river

river water

small stream

anabranch

water

🚰

a branch of a main river

a tributary river

side stream

brook

berry

bottleneck

chirk

ditch

estuary

glade

gully

lagoon

liquid

nook

notch

picture window

pool

pow

riverbed

run

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/kɹiːk/

Étymologie (Anglais)

Hérité de moyen anglais: creke

Hérité de ancien anglais: *creca

Appartenant à Old Dutch: creka

Appartenant à vieux norrois: kriki

Appartenant à vieux norrois: kraki

Appartenant à frison occidental: kreek

Appartenant à néerlandais: kreek

Appartenant à français: crique

In summary

From Middle English creke, kreke, creake, of unclear origin.
Additional etymological information
It existed alongside a second variant in Middle English cryke, krike, cricke, from Old Norse kriki. The first form possibly continues Old English *creca (attested in the diminutive crecca (“creek, bay, wharf”) also found in Anglo-Latin as creca, crecca), from Proto-West Germanic *krekō, from Proto-Germanic *krekô, *krekuz (“corner, hook, angle, bend, bight”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”).
See also Old Dutch creka, crika (“inlet, cove, creek”), Old Norse kriki, krikr (“angle, corner, nook, bight”), Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”), and possibly Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”). Modern cognates include West Frisian kreek (“creek”), Dutch kreek (“creek, cove, inlet, bight”), and French crique (“cove”) (borrowed from Germanic).
Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek came to be used to refer to any small waterway.