reverse-flow
|re-verse-flow|
🇺🇸
/rɪˈvɜrs floʊ/
🇬🇧
/rɪˈvɜːs fləʊ/
flowing backward
Etymology
'reverse-flow' originates from English, composed of the words 'reverse' and 'flow'. 'Reverse' ultimately comes from Latin 'revertere', where 're-' meant 'back' and 'vertere' meant 'to turn'; 'flow' comes from Old English 'flōwan' meaning 'to flow'.
'reverse' passed into English via Old French (reverser) and Middle English forms deriving from Latin 'revertere'. 'flow' continued from Old English 'flōwan' into Middle English and modern English. The compound 'reverse-flow' is a modern English formation combining these two elements to describe a flow in the opposite direction.
Initially the elements referred separately to 'turning back' ('reverse') and 'moving/flowing' ('flow'); over time the compound came to mean specifically 'movement of fluid/material in the opposite direction', a sense used in technical and everyday contexts.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a flow that moves in the opposite direction to the normal or expected direction (often used for fluids, gases, currents, or traffic of materials).
A sudden pressure change caused a reverse-flow in the pipeline, contaminating the clean-water section.
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Adjective 1
describing something that operates or moves in the opposite direction to the usual — e.g., a device or process designed to produce or accommodate flow in the reverse direction.
The plant installed a reverse-flow fan to redirect exhaust during maintenance.
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Last updated: 2025/12/27 09:37