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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-793/
- Published: 2026-10-19T17:15:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T17:15:31.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

watershed (noun) -

1a: a dividing ridge between drainage areas  
b: a region or area bounded peripherally by a divide and draining ultimately to a particular watercourse or body of water  
2: a crucial dividing point, line, or factor : turning point  
3 *British* : the time of day after which television programs not appropriate for children may be broadcast, the nine o'clock watershed  
4 *medical* : an area of tissue (as of the brain or colon) that is located at the periphery of two separate arterial systems, is dependent on both for blood supply, and may be poorly perfused and vulnerable to ischemia —usually used before another noun

Source : [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/watershed?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : Opinion on the literal geographic meaning of watershed is divided. On one side of the debate are those who think the word can only refer to a ridge of land separating rivers and streams flowing in one direction from those flowing in the opposite direction. That’s the term’s original meaning, one probably borrowed in the translation of the German Wasserscheide. On the other side of the argument are those who think watershed can also apply to the area through which such divided water flows. The latter sense is now far more common in America, but most speakers have apparently decided to leave the quarrel to hydrologists and geographers, choosing to limit their use of watershed to its figurative “turning point” sense.

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