Elements of the Universe: Aqua ("Water")

The ancients believed that the universe was composed of five basic elements: earth, air, fire, water, and sky. The Greek and Latin words for these elements still show up in our language today. Learn these words that come from the Latin word aqua, meaning "water."

Here are links to our complete set of Elements of the Universe lists: Cosm, Cosmo ("Universe") / Terr, Terra ("Earth") / Geo ("Earth") / Hydr, Hydro ("Water") / Aqua ("Water") / Ign, Igni ("Fire") / Pyr, Pyro ("Fire") / Aer, Aero ("Air") / Aether ("Sky") / Aster, Astro ("Star") / Sol ("Sun")
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aqua
    a shade of blue tinged with green
    With an aqua, orange and yellow color scheme, the room is bright and cheery but gives off a slight cafeteria vibe. Washington Post (Jul 26, 2015)
  2. aquamarine
    a shade of blue tinged with green
    Far inside the darkness of one grotto I glimpse patches of shimmering, aquamarine light revealing an underwater connection to another cave entrance or an arch. The Guardian (Oct 7, 2018)
    aqua + marinus ("of the sea")
  3. aquatint
    an etching made by a process that makes it resemble a water color
    The artist’s aquatint from the late 18th-century is among the most familiar images in this museum survey of comic drawings, prints and works on paper. Washington Post (Aug 24, 2018)
    aqua + tincta ("dyed")
  4. aquatic
    operating or living or growing in water
    Stunned researchers in Antarctica have discovered fish and other aquatic animals living in perpetual darkness and cold, beneath a roof of ice 740 meters thick. Scientific American (Jul 2, 2015)
    Although aquatic and marine are often used as synonyms, a marine animal is always aquatic, but an aquatic animal is not always marine. Aquatic connects to any type of water of any size in any place, while marine connects only to water in the sea or ocean.
  5. aquarium
    a tank or pool filled with water for keeping live fish
    I am like the fish in the aquarium, thinking in a different language, adapting to a life that’s not my natural habitat. Every Day
    An aquarium can be either a single tank or pool for aquatic animals, or it can be a place with many such tanks and pools.
  6. aquaculture
    raising fish or shellfish or growing water plants for food
    Norway is among the countries embracing aquaculture and is the world's leading producer of farmed Atlantic salmon. BBC (Jun 11, 2015)
    aqua + cultura ("cultivation, care")
  7. aquifer
    underground layer of rock or sand that yields groundwater
    But the shallowest layers — say, the first mile — can hold natural reservoirs, or aquifers, with water sweeter and cleaner than almost any other on Earth. Scientific American (Jul 20, 2015)
    aqua + ferre ("to bear")
  8. aqueduct
    a conduit that carries water over a valley
    Half the water for Los Angeles comes by aqueduct from the Owens Valley over 200 miles away, a diversion that began in 1913. Washington Times (Apr 22, 2015)
    aqua + ductus ("leading; conveying"))
  9. aqueous
    similar to or containing or dissolved in water
    In most cases enzymes need to be in an aqueous environment to work, so if the fluids are removed, decomposition slows down. New York Times (Jun 2, 2017)
  10. aqualung
    a device that lets divers breathe under water
    On the other hand, the Scuba—Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, like the boys' aqualungs, really does allow the diver to get down among the fish. Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)
    aqua + levis ("light")
    Ancients who threw the organs of a slaughtered animal into a pot of water noticed that the heart and liver sank while the lungs floated. This is how lungs became associated with lightness. The word aqualung used to be a hyphenated proper name coined by the French inventors Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan, but like the acronym SCUBA, it became a generic, lowercase noun to describe any underwater breathing device.
Created on Fri Aug 14 11:47:21 EDT 2015 (updated Mon Aug 26 14:27:51 EDT 2019)

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