culvert

Origin obscure, with a number of possible etymologies suggested:

a dialectal word,

a word related to the name of the now-forgotten inventor,

a derivation from French couvert (“covered”), although couvert is not used in this sense and the French translation of culvert is ponceau or buse de drainage,

a derivation from an unrecorded Dutch word, possibly *coul-vaart, a combination of Dutch coul-, from French couler (“to flow”), and Dutch vaart (“a trip by boat, a canal”).