winterbourne

From winter +‎ bourne (“seasonal brook or stream”), partly also from the placenames Winterborne, Winterbourne, which are derived from Old English winterburna (“stream that is full in winter”),[1] from winter (from Proto-Germanic *wintruz, further etymology uncertain) + burna (“stream”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”)). The Old English word appears to have survived only in placenames.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntəbɔːn/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntɚˌboɹn/, [-ɾɚ-]
• Hyphenation: win‧ter‧bourne

winterbourne (plural winterbournes)

1. (Britain) A stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.
   • 1848, [Charles Kingsley], “The Philosophy of Fox-hunting”, in Yeast: A Problem. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, pages 14–15:

     [F]rom the graveyard itself burst up one of those noble springs known as winter-bournes in the chalk ranges, which, awakened in autumn from the abysses to which it had shrunk during the summer's drought, was hurrying down upon its six months' course, a broad sheet of oily silver, over a temporary channel of smooth green sward.

• eylebourn, nailbourne (Britain, dialectal)

• winterbourne (stream) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia