A Lexicon of Water's Motions
A running list of terms for eddies, collisions, boilings and other movements of water
Beneath a small sketch of an eddy, the page gathers a long list of Italian terms for the ways water moves and behaves. The words range across eddies, collisions, rubbings, wavings, boilings, downfallings and delays, on through overturnings, murmurs, whirlings, precipices and tumult, to swiftness, vehemence, impetuosity, revolution and the collapse of a bank. It is a working vocabulary assembled for Leonardo's projected book of waters.
On this page
Vocabulary of the movements of water
A catalogue of terms for water's actions: eddies, collisions, rubbings, wavings, streamings, boilings, downfallings and delays; gushing, pouring, overturnings and serpentine re-plungings; murmurs, choking-up, kicking-back, flux and reflux; chasms, caverns of the banks, whirling, precipices and tumult; and finally swiftness, vehemence, impetuosity, revolution and the collapse of a bank.
Small sketch of an eddy
At the top of the page a brief pen study shows water curling into concentric swirls, a single eddy that anchors the list of terms that follows.