artesian

Meaning

Adjective

• Rising to the surface under its own hydrostatic pressure.

Origin

• 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 *attrebass ("inhabitants"), from *trebā; 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").