Earth & SkyGreek → English
Meander
/miˈændər/verb
To follow a winding course, or to wander without much purpose.
The Greek roots
Μαίανδρος
Maíandros
the Maeander river
Literally: “to do as the Maeander does”
Follow a root:Μαίανδρος1 word
The story of the word
The Μαίανδρος is a real river in western Anatolia, notorious in antiquity for looping back on itself across its flood plain; it is the Büyük Menderes today. Geographers kept the name as a technical term for such a loop, so a Turkish river sits in every physical geography textbook in the world. The Greek key pattern in art carries the same name for the same reason.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
In a sentence
The path meanders down to the shore, taking three times as long as it needs.