Tag: Dike

A dike (or dyke), levee, levée, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial slope or wall, usually earthen and often parallels the course of a river.
The modern word dike is most probably derived from the Dutch word “dijk”, since the construction of dikes is well attested in the Netherlands since the 12th century. The 126 km long Westfriese Omringdijk, for instance, was completed by 1250, and was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Roman chronicler Tacitus already mentions that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land in order to cover their retreat (AD 70). The Dutch word dijk originally meant both the trench and the bank. The word is closely related to the English verb to dig (EWN).
In Anglo-Saxon, the word dic already existed and was pronounced with a hard c in northern England and as ditch in the south. Similar to Dutch, the English origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This…