Potomac River
4
3.5
- proper noun
- /pəˈtoʊmək ˈrɪvər/
:
río Potomac
- The Capitol was placed on the Potomac River.
Examples
-
Prince George's County, Maryland, is right across the Potomac River.
Blog text (29) -
At three o'clock on the afternoon of 18 December 1799, the large funeral procession for Washington left his Mount Vernon home for the old family vault not far down the hill towards the Potomac River.
Academic text (1993) -
National Airport lay on the western side of the Potomac River, just south of the center of the District of Columbia.
Fiction book (1996) -
Five of the 13 states sought to deal with the problems of Potomac River traffic and the rights of states immediately adjacent to the river.
Academic text (1993) -
The Potomac River glinted through another window.
Fiction book (2002) -
The nation's capital appeared to have escaped the worst of monster storm Sandy on Tuesday, although concerns remained about the potential for severe flooding along the Potomac River.
Blog text (28) -
Jefferson and Madison arranged for a committee of six persons, three from Maryland and three from Virginia, to settle disputes about trade on the Potomac River.
Academic text (1993) -
Two miles west of the White House, the quarter-mile-wide Potomac River drifted lazily past a wooded northern shore.
Fiction book (1996) -
Theodore Roosevelt Island, a wooded oasis on the Potomac River, can be accessed only by footbridge from an isolated parking lot on the Virginia shore.
Fiction book (2002) -
A small Coast Guard motor launch moves away from the dock on the Potomac River in Washington, DC.
Synonyms
41
4.3
A large river in the eastern United States that flows into Chesapeake Bay near Washington, D.C.
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward proper-name + generic-noun combination: 'Potomac' (a place-name) + 'river' (a watercourse) yields the river called Potomac. The pattern 'X River' is compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will understand it refers to a specific river.
Etymology
Potomac River gets its name from a Native American group called the Patawomeck who lived on its banks; early English writers spelled that name as 'Potomack', and that spelling stuck to the river. That's why the river is still called the 'Potomac' today.