cataract
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkætəɹækt/
ipa: /ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)/
Forms: form: cataracts
Etymology: PIE word
 *ḱóm
The noun is derived from cataracts (noun (plural only)), from Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“floodgate of heaven”), from Old French cataracte (modern French cataracte), and from its etymon Latin cataracta (“floodgate; waterfall”), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “(noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards”), from καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (katar(rh)ā́ssō, “to pour down; to rush downwards”) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being). Καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (Katar(rh)ā́ssō) is derived either:
* from κᾰτᾰ- (kătă-, prefix meaning ‘downwards’) + ἀρᾰ́σσω (arắssō, “to dash to pieces; to strike”) (further etymology unknown, possibly onomatopoeic) or ῥᾱ́σσω (rhā́ssō, “to dash; to strike”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wreh₂ǵʰ- (“to pound, strike”)); or
* from καταρρηγνύναι (katarrhēgnúnai, “to break down”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt.
text: This Elephantis being an Iſland, is inhabited beneath the lovveſt cataract or fall of vvater three miles, and aboue Syene 16: […]
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book V.] Of Asia.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 98:
text: [T]he Salmon ſeekes a freſher ſtreame to find / […] and ſtems the vvatry tract / VVhere Tivy falling dovvne, doth make a Cataract, / Forc't by the riſing Rocks that there her courſe oppoſe, […]
ref: 1612, Michael Drayton, “The Sixt Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 88:
text: [C]oming dovvn farther the ſame River, they heard a terrible Noiſe in the River, as of a mighty Cataract, or VVater-fall, vvhich increaſed as they came forvvard, till it grevv ſo loud, that they could not hear themſelves ſpeak, much leſs hear one another.
ref: 1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 190:
text: The sounding cataract / Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, / The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, / Their colours and their forms, were then to me / An appetite: […]
ref: 1798 July 13 (date written), William Wordsworth, “[Poems of the Imagination.] Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, […].”, in Poems […], volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1815, →OCLC, page 76:
glosses: A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.
examples: text: [S]uch a violent ſtorme of raine vnburthened it ſelfe neere this place, and cauſed ſuch a ſudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carrauan of tvvo thouſand Camels periſht, and vvere caſt avvay by it.
ref: 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Description of Larr”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 54:
text: Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts, / And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.
ref: 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 92:
text: [T]here came a storm such as no living Englishman remembered. The summer evening grew black as night. Cataracts of water flooded the houses in the city and turned the streets into rivers; […]
ref: 1860, James Anthony Froude, “Queen Jane and Queen Mary”, in History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, volume VI, London: John W[illiam] Parker, and Son, […], →OCLC, page 1:
glosses: A flood of water; specifically, steep rapids in a river.
examples: text: His cataract of eloquence
text: Cataracts of declamation thunder here, / There foreſts of no-meaning ſpread the page / In vvhich all comprehenſion vvanders loſt; […]
ref: 1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 141:
text: The palace bang'd, and buzz'd and clackt, / And all the long-pent stream of life / Dash'd downward in a cataract.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Revival.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 156:
text: Water—there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Loomings”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 3:
text: [T]he look of the man Casimir, between his cataract of black beard and this semi-nightcap, is carelessly truculent.
ref: 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “Of the Baireuth-Anspach Branch”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III, page 231:
text: Never came such a cataract of evil news on an Aulic Council before.
ref: 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “Friedrich Takes the Field again, Intent on Having Neisse”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 459:
text: As if on cue came a cataract of explosions. She turned on her heel and scurried back to the courtyard and down into the school's basement. The dirt floor, low ceiling and unfinished stone walls were barely illuminated by candles and a dim string of green decorative lights.
ref: 2022 May 19, James Verini, “Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2024, section:
glosses: An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.
examples: text: They ſay furthermore that in certeyne places of the ſea, they ſawe certeyne ſtremes of water which they caule ſpoutes faulynge owt of the ayer into the ſea: […] Sum phantaſie that theſe ſhulde bee the cataractes of heauen whiche were all opened at Noes fludde.
ref: 1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Seconde Vyage to Guinea”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, decade, folio 357, verso:
text: Blovv vvind & cracke your cheekes, rage, blovv / You caterickes, & Hircanios ſpout til you haue drencht, / The ſteeples drovvn'd the cockes, […]
ref: c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signature [F4], recto:
english: Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks, rage, blow, / You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drenched / The steeples, drowned the cocks, […]
translation: Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks, rage, blow, / You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drenched / The steeples, drowned the cocks, […]
bold_translation_offsets: 53
62
text: [A] long ſpout of ſtinking raine Pyramide vviſe, diſſolued it ſelfe very neere vs. This hidious Cataract, as I conceiue is exhaled by the Suns povverfull Attract, and conuerted into an ill congeſted Cloud, vvanting height and heate, is forced into a violent eruption, vvhich diſſolued by the penetrating Sunne, eſſudes it ſelfe altogether (vvhence it had beginning) into the Ocean, […]
ref: 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “[The Hesperides]”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 7:
text: [W]hat if all / Her ſtores vvere op'n'd, and this Firmament / Of Hell, ſhould ſpout her Cataracts of Fire, […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [D4], verso, lines 174–176:
glosses: Synonym of waterspout (“a whirlwind that forms over water”).
synonyms: word: waterspout
extra: a whirlwind that forms over water
Derived terms: cataractal
cataract bog
cataracted
cataractic