rivage

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman rivage, Middle French rivage, from Late Latin rīpāticum.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪvɪdʒ/

Noun

rivage (countable and uncountable, plural rivages)

1. (now rare, poetic) A coast, a shore.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII (in Middle English):

     Ryght soo departed Galahad / Percyual / and Bors with hym / and soo they rode thre dayes / and thenne they came to a Ryuage and fonde the shyp […] / And whanne they cam to the borde / they fonde in the myddes the table of syluer / whiche they had lefte with the maymed kynge and the Sancgreal whiche was couerd with rede samyte

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Pactolus with his waters shere
     Throwes forth upon the rivage

   • 1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Recollections of the Arabian Nights”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, part V, page 25:

     From the green rivage many a fall / Of diamond rillets musical, […]

   • 1892, Michael Field, The Death of Procris:

     […] leaves have taken flight
     From yon
     Slim seedling-birch on the rivage, the flock
     Of herons has the quiet of solitude […]

2. (law, UK, historical) A duty paid to the crown for the passage of vessels on certain rivers.

Anagrams

• Argive, virgae

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French rivage, from Late Latin rīpāticum. Equivalent to by surface analysis, rive ‎ -age.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.vaʒ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: rivages
• Hyphenation: ri‧vage
• Rhymes: -ɑʒ

Noun

rivage m (plural rivages)

1. bank; shore; coast
   • 2015, Fréro Delavega, Ton visage:

     Que n’ai-je ? Une planche de salut, loin du métro, de son raffut, les yeux rivés sur le rivage, oublier ton lointain visage.

     What do I not have? A lifeline, far from the metro and all that racket. My eyes glued to the shore to forget your distant face.

   • 2013, Zaz, On ira:

     Vous êtes l’horizon, nous sommes la mer. Vous êtes les saisons, nous sommes la terre. Vous êtes le rivage, et moi, je suis l’écume.

     You are the horizon, we are the sea. You are the seasons, we are the earth. You are the shore, and I am the foam.

Usage notes

• Refers to the area of land connected to the sea. For freshwater, see rive.

See also

• côte
• plage
• rive

Further reading

• “rivage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• virage

Old French

Etymology

From Late Latin rīpāticum. Equivalent to by surface analysis, rive ‎ -age.

Noun

rivage oblique singular, m (oblique plural rivages, nominative singular rivages, nominative plural rivage)

1. riverbank or shore

Descendants

• French: rivage
• → English: rivage

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (rivage, supplement)
• rivage on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub