The origin of the word “sewer” can be traced back to Middle English, specifically the word “seurgate” meaning “sewer-gate” in a text from 1403. This evolved into variations such as “souer, seuer, and sewer” to refer to channels for waste and drainage. The term is derived from the Anglo-French word “sewere”, ultimately coming from Old French “sewiere” or “seuwiere”. This is believed to be a distorted borrowing from the unrecorded Gallo-Roman word “exaquaria”, which meant “drain”. The Latin roots are evident in the word, with “ex-” meaning “out” and “aquarius” relating to water, indicating water flowing outwards. The prefix “ex-” can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European “eghs”, also meaning “out”, while “aqua” originates from Proto-Italic “akwa”, derived from another PIE reconstruction “hekweh” meaning “water”.
