Where does “riverbed” come from?

Riverbed comes from English river and bed, where river derives from Old French riviere, from Latin riparius meaning of or pertaining to a riverbank.

riverbed (English): The path where a river runs, or where a river...

Definitions

  1. The path where a river runs, or where a river...

Ancestry of “riverbed”, step by step

riverbed traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English bed

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishbedA piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on...
2Middle EnglishbedA place of rest or sleep
3Old Englishbeddbed
4Proto-West Germanicbadibed
5Persianبدیbadness
6Persianبدbad; not good; evil; poorly, badly
7Middle Persian𐭯𐭥𐭭to; at; in
8Proto-Iranianpati-against, toward; lord
9Proto-Iranian*rādi-
10Proto-Iranian*rād-
11Proto-Indo-IranianHraHdʰ-
12Proto-Indo-EuropeanHreh₁dʰ-to think; to arrange; to succeed, accomplish
13Proto-Indo-Europeanh₂reh₁-to think, reason; to arrange
14Proto-Indo-Europeanh₂er-to fit, to fix, to put together

via English River

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishRiverA place name
2English-erA person or thing that does an action indicated...
3Middle English-eragentive suffix; agent noun suffix
4Old French-erAlternative form of -ier, verbal suffix;...
5Latin-ārefirst conjugation
6Proto-Italic-āōForms primarily denominative verbs
7Proto-Indo-European-eh₂yétiCreates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive...
8Proto-Indo-European-yétiCreates intransitive, often deponent,...
9Proto-Indo-Europeanyé-
10Chichewaiyehe, she
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₂er-