tributary
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2023 8:59 pm
This term, to me, denotes a smaller waterway that feeds into a larger waterway, as the Missouri River is a tributary of the Mississippi.
I've just been introduced to a use with quite a different meaning, as in this speech by Marullus, from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 1:
Is there more?
I've just been introduced to a use with quite a different meaning, as in this speech by Marullus, from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 1:
Clearly, this is related to "tribute", in the Roman sense. That too has different shades of meaning, not all salutary.Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
Is there more?