[PW] Baha'i term

[S M Colowick]

The OED lists "waterbrook" as one of many examples of compound words
that use the word "water" to mean "Consisting of, holding or
containing, formed or caused by, water." (As opposed to, say, a
winebrook or a tearbrook?) The religious meaning would probably depend
on the context.

There's a book called _The hart and the water-brooks; a practical
exposition of the forty-second Psalm_ (http://tinyurl.com/6pda2u),
which may give some detail. One translation of this psalm sems to
substitute the word "streams": "As the deer longs for streams of
water, so my soul longs for you, O God."
(http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm42.htm)

smc

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 1:53 PM, James Weaver <JWeaver at wcls.org> wrote:
> One of our patrons called an interesting one into my co-workers this
> morning.
>
> She was reading from the Baha'i scriptures, particularly a psalm-like
> praise-hymn, and encountered the term 'waterbrooks' for which she wants
> the religious definition.
>
> My co-workers used OED, Random House, and American Heritage
> dictionaries, several different Christian wordbooks (only because we
> have no other religions represented), and a couple of Bible concordances
> (on the hunch that such a term might be generalized). One co-worker used
> Google to identify many hymns with the term in them, but no definition.
>
> I got the assignment to pass the query on.
>
> Hope this helps! -- James
>
> James E. Weaver, Reference Librarian
> Whatcom County (WA) Library System
> vox: 360-354-4883 -- fax: 360-354-3149
> http://www.wcls.org/