It is such a simple word for so versatile and important a liquid. We drink it, cook with it, wash in it, sail across it, swim in it, sprinkle it on our flowers and, when the need arises, we put fires out with it. In some parts of the world there is too much of it and in other parts it is so scarce that it is more precious than gold. It is older than life itself, it predates human existence and it flowed over the land aeons before man learned to speak. So it should not come as a surprise, then, that when we start looking at the etymology of the word ‘water’ we soon find ourselves travelling back to prehistoric times and making contact with very ancient civilizations. Nor is it very long before we find ourselves going round and round in circles as the twists and turns of the word's evolution reveal connections which the vast majority of us have probably never suspected.