Editing Levee (section)

== Etymology ==
Speakers of [[American English]] use the word ''levee'', from the French word {{lang|fr|levée}} (from the feminine past participle of the [[French verbs|French verb]] {{lang|fr|lever}}, 'to raise'). It originated in [[New Orleans]] a few years after the city's founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers.<ref>{{OED|levee}} '''1718–1720''': "Dumont Plan, New Orleans" [map label]. Shown in Justin Winsor, (1895) ''The Mississippi basin: The struggle in America between England and France 1697–1763.'' Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company {{ISBN|0833747223}}. '''1770''': "The town [New Orleans] is secured from the inundations of the river by a raised bank, generally called the Levée." Philip Pittman, ''The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi; with a geographical description of that river.'' London</ref> The name derives from the trait of the levee's ridges being raised higher than both the channel and the surrounding floodplains.

The modern word ''dike'' or ''dyke'' most likely derives from the [[Dutch language|Dutch]] word {{lang|nl|dijk}}, with the construction of dikes well attested as early as the 11th century. The {{convert|126|km|mi|adj=mid|sp=us|-long}} [[Westfriese Omringdijk]], completed by 1250, was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Roman chronicler [[Tacitus]] mentions that the rebellious [[Batavi (Germanic tribe)|Batavi]] pierced dikes to flood their land and to protect their retreat (70&nbsp;[[Common Era|CE]]).<ref>Tacitus ''Histories'' V 19</ref> The word {{lang|nl|dijk}} originally indicated both the [[trench]] and the [[bank (geography)|bank]]. It closely parallels the English verb ''to dig''.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://nl.aup.nl/books/9789053566534-etymologisch-woordenboek-van-het-nederlands-deel-1-a-t-m-e.html|title= Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, deel 1: A t/m E&nbsp;– Amsterdam University Press|website= Aup.nl|access-date= 12 February 2015|archive-date= 26 March 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170326092445/http://nl.aup.nl/books/9789053566534-etymologisch-woordenboek-van-het-nederlands-deel-1-a-t-m-e.html|url-status= dead}}</ref>

In [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]], the word {{lang|ang|dic}} already existed and was pronounced as ''dick'' in northern England and as ''ditch'' in the south. Similar to Dutch, the English origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name may be given to either the excavation or to the bank. Thus [[Offa's Dyke]] is a combined structure and [[Car Dyke]] is a trench – though it once had raised banks as well. In the English [[Midlands]] and [[East Anglia]], and in the United States, a dike is what a [[ditch]] is in the south of England, a property-boundary marker or drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a running dike as in ''Rippingale Running Dike'', which leads water from the [[catchwater drain]], Car Dyke, to the South Forty Foot Drain in [[Lincolnshire]] (TF1427). The Weir Dike is a [[soak dike]] in [[Bourne, Lincolnshire|Bourne North Fen]], near [[Twenty, Lincolnshire|Twenty]] and alongside the [[River Glen, Lincolnshire|River Glen]], [[Lincolnshire]]. In the [[Norfolk]] and [[Suffolk]] [[The Broads|Broads]], a dyke may be a drainage ditch or a narrow artificial channel off a river or broad for access or mooring, some longer dykes being named, e.g., Candle Dyke.<ref>
{{cite web
|url= http://www.countrysideaccess.norfolk.gov.uk/news-details.aspx?id=119 
|title= Weavers' Way footpath closure&nbsp;– Decoy Road (Hickling) to Potter Heigham 7 January 2011 – 6 April 2012 
|publisher= Countrysideaccess.norfolk.gov.uk 
|access-date= 2013-05-17
}}
</ref>

In parts of [[United Kingdom|Britain]], particularly [[Scotland]] and [[Northern England]], a dyke may be a field wall, generally made with [[dry stone]].