Stream — From Old English to English | etymologist.ai
stream
/stɹiːm/·noun·c. 700 CE (Old English 'strēam' in Beowulf and early poetry)·Established
Origin
'Stream' is PIE *srew- (to flow) — distantly related to Greek 'rheuma,' making 'stream' and 'rheumatism' kin.
Definition
A body of water flowing in a natural channel, smaller than a river; also, any continuous flow of liquid, air, people, data, or other things.
The Full Story
Old Englishbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'strēam' (a river, a current of water, a flowing body), from Proto-Germanic *straumaz (stream, current, flow), from PIE *srew- (to flow, to run as water). This is one of the fundamental Indo-European water roots, generatingvocabulary for flowing water across the whole family. Greek 'rheuma' (a flow, a stream, a current — source of English 'rheumatism,' which was thought caused
Did you know?
English 'stream' andGreek 'rheuma' (which gives 'rheumatism') descend from the same PIE root *srew- ('to flow'). Rheumatism was named by ancient Greek physicians who believed it was caused by a 'flow' of bad humors into the joints — so the disease of stiff joints is etymologically a 'stream.'