aqua

Alternative forms

• acua
• acqua (Appendix Probi)
• 🜄 (alchemy)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *akʷā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂. Cognate with Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“water, stream”).^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈa.kʷa/, [ˈäkʷä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.kwa/, [ˈäːkwä]
• Note: rarely appears as a three-syllable (e.g. Lucretius DRN.6.1072).

Noun

aqua f (genitive aquae); first declension

1. water

   aqua dulcis ― fresh water

   crībrō aquam haurīre ― to draw water with a sieve, to flog a dead horse (proverb)

   Lavō cum aquā ― I wash with water

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Genesis.1.2:

     Terra autem erat inānis et vacua, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssī: et spīritus Deī ferēbātur super aquās.

     And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Genesis.1.6:

     Dīxit quoque Deus fīat firmāmentum in mediō aquārum et dīvidat aquās ab aquīs.

     And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

   • 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 2, line 14:

     Aqua dīcitur, ā quā iuvāmur.

     Water is called that which sustains us.

References

Further reading

• “aqua”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “aqua”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• aqua in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• aqua in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the surface of the water: summa aqua
    
  • to stand out of the water: ex aqua exstare
    
  • the water reaches to the waist: aqua est umbilīco tenus
    
  • the water is up to, is above, the chest: aqua pectus aequat, superat
    
  • to come to the surface: (se) ex aqua emergere
    
  • to draw off water from a river: aquam ex flumine derivare
    
  • to bring a stream of water through the garden: aquam ducere per hortum
    
  • a conduit; an aqueduct: aquae ductus (plur. aquarum ductus)
    
  • running water: aqua viva, profluens (opp. stagnum)
    
  • a perpetual spring: aqua iugis, perennis
    
  • ill-watered: aquae, aquarum inops
    
  • to slake one's thirst by a draught of cold water: sitim haustu gelidae aquae sedare
    
  • to proscribe a person, declare him an outlaw: aqua et igni interdicere alicui
    
• “aqua”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Etymology

From Latin aqua.

Noun

aqua f

1. (Old Lombard) water

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aqua.

Noun

aqua (uncountable)

1. water
2. decoction

References

• “aqua, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology

Inherited from Latin aqua. Compare Italian acqua.

Pronunciation

• (Naples) IPA^(key): [ˈakwă]
• (Castelmezzano) IPA^(key): [ˈakwə]

Noun

aqua f (plural aque)

1. water
2. rain

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1037: “acqua” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

Noun

aqua f

1. Alternative spelling of acua