riparian

English

WOTD – 12 June 2011

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rīpārius (“relating to a riverbank”) +‎ -an.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹʌɪˈpɛːɹɪən/, /ɹɪˈpɛːɹɪən/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

A riparian strip on a tributary to Lake Erie

Adjective

riparian (comparative more riparian, superlative most riparian)

1. Of or relating to the bank of a river or stream.
   • 1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 112:

     By the time she'd pulled into Bortz's subdivision, a riparian settlement in the style of Fangoso Lagoons, she was only shaking and a little nauseous in the stomach.

   • 2011 May 28, Jim Perrin, The Guardian:

     A kingfisher, an airborne jewel, whirrs past, stickleback in its beak, and disappears into a thicket of riparian willow.

   • 2013 January, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 22 January 2013, page 59:

     European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.

   • 2021 April 1, Lara Fowler, “No April Fool’s joke for Florida: Water rights case is dismissed”, in SCOTUSblog:

     Relying on the fact that both states are riparian states, the court noted that both have “an equal right to make a reasonable use” of the water in the shared basin and that Florida bore the “heavy burden” of proving its case by clear and convincing evidence.

Derived terms

• hydroriparian
• mesoriparian
• nonriparian
• pseudoriparian
• riparian buffer
• riparian right
• riparianism
• riparianness
• semiriparian
• xeroriparian

Translations

of or pertaining to a riverbank

• Bulgarian: крайречен (krajrečen)
• Catalan: ripari (ca), riberenc
• Finnish: jokivarren (fi) (genitive of noun), jokivarsi- (fi)
• French: rivulaire (fr)
• German: Ufer- (de)
• Hungarian: ártéri (hu)
• Italian: ripario m, ripaiolo f, ripicolo f, ripestre f
• Norwegian: elverelatert
• Portuguese: ribeirinho m, ribeirinha f, ripária f, ripícola f
• Spanish: ribereño (es)
• Swedish: strand-

See also

• riverain
• riverine

Noun

riparian (plural riparians)

1. (chiefly law) A person or other entity that lives or owns property along the shore of a river.