When the term ravine was initially introduced in the English language in 1545, it denoted a “powerful surge of water”. It wasn’t until the late seventeenth century that it began to signify gorges formed by forceful water surges, peaking in literary usage in 1855. The term originates from Old French raviner, which primarily meant “take by force” in the context of robberies, but it was also metaphorically used to describe water rushing into certain areas, leading to the definition we know today. Raviner ultimately stems from the Latin verb rapere, signifying “to seize” (this root also gives rise to words like raptor, rape, rapid, ravish, surreptitious, usurp, and more). Etymologists trace the word back to the Proto-Italic root rapio and the Proto-Indo-European verb hrep, both conveying the idea of “to snatch”.
