Catadupe

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Waterfall; cataract.

    "Yet was not this all; for hither to the north boiled the majestic cataract in unimaginable grandiloquence, and thither to the south sparkled the gentle catadupe in serene and incandescent tranquillity, whilst far and near the halcyon brooklet flowed between!"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A city on the Nile river, a few miles above Aga-nagara; the site of the first cataract of the Nile. obsolete
  2. 2
    An inhabitant of this city.

    "Catadupes never heard the roaring of the fall of Nilus, because the noiſe was ſo familiar unto them."

Example

More examples

"Catadupes never heard the roaring of the fall of Nilus, because the noiſe was ſo familiar unto them."

Etymology

Etymology 1

The place name is from Latin Catadūpa, from Ancient Greek Κατάδουποι (Katádoupoi), "commonly derived from καταδουπέω (katadoupéō), as if downroars" (see κατα- (kata-, “down”), δουπέω (doupéō, “to thud”)). (The people are from Latin Catadūpi.)

Etymology 2

From French catadupe, from Latin Catadūpa, name of the first cataract of the Nile, from Ancient Greek Κατάδουποι (Katádoupoi); see Catadupe for more.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.