You never step in the same river twice, but a rival you step on constantly. “Everything flows” — including anger and resentment. According to Socrates, according to Plato, the original Greek of Heraclitus’ fragment was Panta rhei, the verb of which streamed into the Latin rivus, meaning “rivulet” or “brook.” A derived term (derivare: “to draw off water”) was rivalis, meaning “a person with whom you share a river.” And so we have “rival”: a person who fishes the same waters as you — a person who, if wishes were fishes, would drown.

Richard Bradford’s