Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday April 10, 2007
rivulet \RIV-yuh-lut\ , noun:
A small stream or brook; a streamlet.
But Stephen speaks of water in the desert, and triumphal swelling progress: raindrop, runnel, rivulet, river, sea.
-- Blake Morrison, As If
There was a rivulet of scummy water heading for his highly polished black shoe.
-- Joanne Harris, Chocolat
After two minutes in the steam chamber, sweat began to flow in rivulets from every pore in my body, dripping steadily from my fingertips.
-- Fen Montaigne, Reeling in Russia
Rivulet is from Italian rivoletto, diminutive of rivolo, from Latin rivulus, diminutive of rivus, "a brook, a stream."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for rivulet
