wæterscipe

• wætersċype

wæter (“water”) +‎ -sċipe (“-ship”). Compare Old Saxon watriscapum (“watercourse, watersource”) and Middle Dutch waterschap (“watercourse, waterway”)

wætersċipe m

1. body of water
   • c. 1000, Ælfric of Eynsham (tr.), Hexameron of St. Basil:

     On ðām forman dæġe ūre drihten ġesċeōp seofonfealde weorc, ðæt wǣron ealle englas, and ðǣs lēohtes anġin, and ðæt antimber ðe hē of ġesċeōp syððan ġesċeafta, ðā upplīċan heofenan and ðā nyðerlīċan eorðan, ealle wætersċypas, and ðā wīdgillan sǣ, and ðæt uppliċe lyft, eall on anū dæġe.

     On the first day our Lord created seven works, which were: all of the angels; the beginning of light; the substance from which he later made all the creatures; the high heavens; the low earth; all the bodies of water; the wide ocean; and the lofty sky, all in a single day.

Strong ja-stem:

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “wæter-scipe”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.