silt

Meanings

1. Mud or fine earth deposited from running or standing water.
2. Any material with similar physical characteristics, regardless of its origins or transport.
3. A particle from 3.9 to 62.5 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.

1. To clog or fill with silt.
2. To become clogged with silt.
3. To flow through crevices; to percolate.

Etymology

PIE word *sḗh₂l From Middle English silte, cilte, cylte, perhaps from Middle English silen ("to filter; strain"; equivalent to sile + -t), or cognate with Norwegian and Danish sylt (“salt marsh”), Middle Low German sulte (“salt-marsh”), German Sülze (“meat in aspic”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sultijō (“salty water; brine”). Related to Old English sealt (“salt”).