Aquarius

1830, "artificial pond in a garden or elsewhere for growing aquatic plants," noun use of neuter of Latin aquarius "pertaining to water" (also, as a noun, "water-carrier"), genitive of aqua "water" (from PIE root *akwa- "water").

The noun aquarium in Latin meant "drinking place for cattle." In English, the meaning "vessel of glass filled with water in which living aquatic animals are kept indoors" is by 1853. The Victorian mania for indoor aquariums began with the book "The Aquarium," published 1854 by English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse. An earlier attempt at a name for "fish tank" was marine vivarium.

*akwā-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "water."

It forms all or part of: aqua; aqua-; aqua vitae; aqualung; aquamarine; aquanaut; aquarelle; aquarium; Aquarius; aquatic; aquatint; aqueduct; aqueous; aquifer; Aquitaine; eau; Evian; ewer; gouache; island; sewer (n.1) "conduit."

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit ap "water;" Hittite akwanzi "they drink;" Latin aqua "water, the sea, rain;" Lithuanian upė "a river;" Old English ea "river," Gothic ahua "river, waters." But Boutkan (2005) writes that only the Germanic and Latin words are sure, Old Irish ab is perhaps related, and "the rest of the evidence in Pokorny (1959) is uncertain."

"pertaining to the zodiacal sign of Aquarius;" see Aquarius + -ian. It was used by 1940 specifically in reference to the astrological Age of Aquarius. Earlier, as a noun, "one who uses water instead of wine at the Eucharist" (1580s).