river driftn.
/ˌrɪvə ˈdrɪft/, U.S. /ˌrɪvər ˈdrɪft/ Now historical.
Alluvial material deposited by a river in its valley (as opposed to that deposited by a glacier or ice sheet).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > sediment or alluvium > [noun] > ancient
river drift1839
1839 H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall xiii. 403 The whole probably being the accumulation of river-drift during a long period of time.
a1858 E. T. Denig Five Indian Tribes of Upper Missouri (1985) ii. 49 Tabeau witnessed the salvage of a dead buffalo from the river drift in 1804.
1892 S. R. Gardiner Student's Hist. Eng. 2 These Palæolithic men of the river drift.
1929 Science 18 Oct. 378/2 I collected it in some numbers in river drift near Bourail.
2007 A. O'Connor Finding Time for Old Stone Age ii. 39 The old terms ‘glacial drift’ and ‘river drift’ began to fade as geologists like Wood assigned to these deposits a new variety of more specific names.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
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1865 J. Lubbock Prehist. Times viii. 239 Neither the mammoth nor the..rhinoceros have been found in any stratum anterior to the river-drift gravels.
1906 E. Anwyl Celtic Relig. in Pre-Christian Times ii. 10 The civilisation of primitive man in Gaul presents one aspect that is without any analogies in the life of the palaeolithic men of the River Drift period.
2007 A. O'Connor Finding Time for Old Stone Age ii. 32 This was not welcome news for the palaeontologists, who believed that cave fauna and river-drift fauna were pre-glacial.
C2.
river-drift man n. an early Palaeolithic hominid known from remains and artefacts found in river drift.
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1880 W. B. Dawkins Early Man in Brit. v. 99 The last and most important addition to be made to this list is the man of the river deposits, or the River-drift man.
1891 Scribner's Mag. Jan. 4/1 Think of troglodytes, pile-villagers, bog-men, riverdrift-men, cave-men, men of the stone, bronze, iron, or steel ages, down to the highly cultured Bostonian men and women of the period.
1915 R. L. Ashley Anc. Civilization i. 31 Make a little table showing in one column why the ‘river drift’ man lived near the rivers.
2007 A. O'Connor Finding Time for Old Stone Age iv. 101 (heading) River-drift men and cave men.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1839