If you know someone with a lake house or a home on the banks of a river, you could call them a riparian. From the Latin “ripa,” meaning “bank” (as in a riverbank, not where you store money), this word began its journey in the early 19th century, referring to tracts of land located on rivers and sometimes lakes. It was mostly used in a legal sense, in the context of trade and foreign policy. It’s also used now in the field of ecology to discuss wetland areas near waterways. “Riparian” can be used as an adjective, as in, “The riparian fields have been sold for new development,” or as a noun, referring to a person that lives or has property on the riparian land.