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back eddy
DCHP-2 (Nov 2012)
Spelling variants:back-eddy
1n. — Geography, predominantly British Columbia
an area in a river or stream where the current has reversed due to an obstruction, creating a small pool or eddy.
Type: 5. Frequency — Back eddy is a preservation from British English, and particularly in an altered form from the BrE "eddy" of the same meaning (see OED-3, s.v. "eddy" (n.1)). Although back eddy does appear in British print news, it is most often, although not always, used figuratively (see meanings 2 and 3). It appears that eddy is the preferred term in the UK when referencing a pool created by an obstruction, whereas back eddy is used in Canada. Note that the term may be used in connection with liquids more generally in a metaphorical manner (see the 1919 quotation). Internet domain searches indicate that back eddy is most frequent in Canada and the US (see Chart 1). Chart 2 demonstrates the term's prevalence in BC.
See also COD-2, s.v. "back eddy" (1), which is marked "Cdn (esp. BC)".
See also COD-2, s.v. "back eddy" (1), which is marked "Cdn (esp. BC)".
A tendency for compounding can be seen in Canadian English lexis, as shown in DCHP-1's most recent period (1950-67), where more than 70% of Canadianisms are compounds (Dollinger & Brinton 2008: 48). The compound back eddy is only found occasionally in British print news, where the simplex term eddy is most common. In Canadian English, the situation is reversed, with the compound being the standard term.
Quotations
1888
It will be observed that on line AB (sheet No. 2) very little sawdust and mill refuse is shown and that only in the formation of an island near Hull shore. The bottom of the river here is rock and the channel narrow, consequently the current is swift and prevents deposits. The island formed of sawdust and mill refuse, mentioned above, is in a back eddy.
1919
A sommersault is just a convenient way of stirring up a great splanchme pool in which so much (about one-third) of the blood in the body tends to accumulate when we are too dignified or aged. It also stirs up the divers puddles and back eddies, along the alimentary canal that is ptosed (sagging) or otherwise blocked by kinks of the food tube.
1932
To find an 1833 American cent while walking down the Hockley Rd. and to snare a pike in a back eddy of the Hockley river with a piece of fence wire has been the experience of Joseph Kearns, who is spending the summer with Thomas Goodeve.
1958
A third man survived after the roaring, 25-knot rush of white water washed him 200 yards through jagged rocks and snags to a back eddy near the bottom of the falls.
1983
We kept on going upstream for a while and began to see little groups of fish fry in many of the little back eddies.
2n. — figurative use
a place that is thought to be far removed from centres of culture or activity.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — In Canada, the term underwent a metaphoric shift and may now refer to a location that is perceived to be rural and far from urban centres, similar to "backwater".
See also COD-2, s.v. "back eddy" (2), which is marked "Cdn (esp. BC)".
See also COD-2, s.v. "back eddy" (2), which is marked "Cdn (esp. BC)".
Quotations
1893
[...] have only now brought home the fact to this enterprising man of business that West Kootenay is a mining country; and to him mines, mineral machinery, railroads, rolling stock, smelters, steamboats, and towns are all the unreal phantasmagoria of a disordered dream likely at any moment to disappear in the gray light of a Canadian morning. In what quaint and curious back eddies of the world's progress do those business limpets of the East make their habitation.
1923
As a result of immigration, he pointed out, there was being injected into Canada a new vitality and fresh blood from the neglected races and back eddies of Europe.
1953
His short sojourn among us here at Gibsons has made a chapter in this extremely well written account of his life which was made up of constant trial and tribulation. There are a few left hereabouts that he had contact with so perhaps my own gives me leave to mention them albeit without pride. As for the bigoted band of rebels who occasionally gathered in the Doctors [sic] basement for "study group" [sic], we did not take very kindly to this as we thought more or less cast off Parson. We regarded him as another piece of flotsam thrown into this back eddy of lifes [sic] stream and most of us beach ruffians were glad to see him pumping the leaky old "Good Tidings" with a certain smug satisfaction.
1996
I mean to say that there, on a quiet, back-eddy street in south Oak Bay is being waged a vast, wordless debate between two architectural styles; a collision between entirely different systems of thought, different sensibilities.
3n. — figurative use
an unimportant part of something that may be irrelevant; not the mainstream.
Type: 2. Preservation — This meaning appears to be a preservation from British English (see, e.g. the 1856 quotation from the London Times).
Quotations
1856
[But the truth, after all, is - and most people see it sooner or later - that the little back eddy is a very insignificant movement compared with the great stream of religous thought and life.]
1885
His views are in full harmony with those which, making exception for a few back eddies in the stream of modern thought, are winning their way to general acceptance among the more instructed and reflective men of our day.
1920
Although the referendum vote in Ontario was about as decisive an expression of public opinion in favor of prohibition as any such vote on a matter of large public importance could very well be there seems to be a tendency in some quarters to take advantage of the present rather confused situation, in order to create anti-prohibition sentiment. There is just now a little back eddy of reaction.
1992
Canada's maturing oil industry is no exception. But recently, the tide of oil and gas producers going international has been offset by a back-eddy of companies returning to their roots in Western Canada.
4v.
pertaining to liquids and similar substances, to move in a particular fashion creating back eddies (see meaning 1).
Type: 3. Semantic Change — A conversion from noun to verb that is not new (see the 1918 quotation), but more frequently used quite recently.
Quotations
1918
The wind, which had risen with nightfall to a gale off the water, whipped snow with it which swirled and back-eddied with the switching cars into the great, gaping stern of the ferry.
2012
With the influence of the Copper River running along the foreshore of the village, the sea ice would swirl and back-eddy in front of the community with the current from the river.
2012
The hole I was working had 1" to 1/2" cobbles on the upstream side. It is where the water back eddied after coming around the bend and a tree on the bend [sic].
References
- COD-2
- OED-3
- Dollinger & Brinton (2008) • Article
Images
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 10 September 2013
