forcefall
A waterfall or cascading torrent.
Noun
- A waterfall or cascading torrent.
- For down from His heights, marking the descent by "forcefalls" as a river marks declivities in its bed by cataracts, comes this supreme power; […] - 1924, Frederick Spencer Oliver, A Dweller on Two Planets, page 64:
- Tops of sweet birch snap strong and stiff like bones busting against bats or the sides of heads slapping concrete through the forcefall that takes a score more limbs before piercing top soil like carelessly falling...
Origin
From Middle English *forsfal, from Old Norse forsfall (“waterfall, torrent”), equivalent to force (“waterfall”) + fall. Compare Icelandic fossfall (“waterfall, torrent”).