Word of the Day

: May 10, 2015

riparian

adjective ruh-PAIR-ee-un

What It Means

: relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (such as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater

riparian in Context

When the students were studying riparian habitat development, their teacher took them on a field trip to a nearby creek.

"But invasive plants slowly overtook the native savannahs, prairie and riparian forest that soil samples have proved were there first." - Molly Glentzer, Houston Chronicle, March 31, 2015

Did You Know?

Riparian came to English from the same source that gave us river-the Latin riparius, a noun deriving from ripa, meaning "bank" or "shore." First appearing in English in the 19th century, riparian refers to things that exist alongside a river (such as riparian wetlands, habitats, trees, etc.). Some river communities have laws called "riparian rights," referring to the rights of those owning land along a river to have access to the waterway. Note the distinction of this word from littoral, which usually refers to things that occur along the shore of a sea or ocean.