artesian

Etymology

From French puits artésien (“artesian well”), from the former province of Artois, where the technique of artesian wells was elaborated by monks in the 12th century. The place name is from Old French Arteis, from Atrebates, a pre-Roman Gallo-Germanic tribe in northwestern Gaul, from Proto-Celtic *ad-treb-a-t-es (“inhabitants”), from *trebā (“home, building”); see also Middle Breton treff (“city”), Welsh tref (“town”), and Old Irish treb (“farm, building”) – all from Proto-Indo-European *treb- (“settlement”) (same source as Old English þorp (“village”), Lithuanian troba (“house”), and Occitan trevar (“to live in a village or house”)). See also Old Irish aittrebaid (“inhabitant”).

adj

1. (of a water supply) Rising to the surface under its own hydrostatic pressure.