lavant

See also: Lavant

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Alternative forms

levant

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English *lavand, *lavant, lavande, present participle of Middle English laven (“to stream, pour out a stream, wash”), from Old English lafian (“to pour water on, wash, lave, bathe, ladle out”), equivalent to lave +‎ -and; or from Old French lavant, present participle of laver (“to wash”). See lave.

Noun

lavant (plural lavants)

(UK dialectal) A shallow or more or less intermittent spring, or the stream of water (bourne) which feeds and springs forth from such a spring.
- 1815, James Dallaway, A History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex: Including the Rapes of Chichester, Arundel, and Bramber, with the City and Diocese of Chichester, page 112:
  Lavants, are land springs, which break out much, on the downs of Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. The country people say, that when the Lavants rise, corn will be dear; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send […]
- 1891, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, page 15:
  In this part of Hampshire a bourn is called a lavant, and after long internals when a lavant rises at Hambledon, some of the springs rise from, or quite close to[,] the churchyard itself.
- 1894, Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, Proceedings, page 54:
  About five miles south of Petersfield, in a valley among the chalk hills, is the village of Charlton. No permanent stream flows through this vallet, but eastward of the village a remarkable "lavant" occurs. This lavant is a flow of water from springs in the chalk of an uncertain and intermittent nature, which occur in the winter or early spring, depending on the time and degree of the winter rainfall and the consequent saturation of the chalk. The lavant springs occur at varying elevations, depending on the nature of the seasons; the higher the lavant, the greater is the flow of water, […]
- 1928, Water and Water Engineering, page 316:
  […] an intermittant stream (locally known as a "lavant," but in many parts called a "bourne") appears in the valley bottom […]
- 2007, Richard Mabey, Gilbert White: A Biography of the Author of The Natural History of Selborne, University of Virginia Press, →ISBN, page 147:
  The cold wet weather continued unabated during February and the underground springs ('lavants') began to break out of the chalk hills ominously early.
(UK dialectal) A violent flow or rush of water.
How it did rain! It ran down the street in a lavant.