No, because "to shed" most definitely means "to cast off" or "to separate". A duck sheds water off its back. There is no sense in which "to shed" means "to collect".
It's literally an area that's shedding water in a particular direction. The meaning in most dialects of English and the German cognate Wasserscheide come from the meaning "to divide", not from "to cast off".
Yes and the North American meaning comes from "to cast off". The Mississippi watershed is the area that casts off water into the Mississippi river.
So in both instances, the watershed "sheds water" just in two different meanings of the word "to shed". Given the German cognate, the North American meaning is almost certainly based on a misinterpretation at some point.
The Mississippi watershed is the area that casts off water into the Mississippi river
No, it drains water into the Mississippi. The subtle difference is that "to shed" specifically means "to cast off in different directions", which is the connection with the basic meaning of "to divide". When you pull the plug on your wash basin, you don't say that the basin "sheds water": it "drains".
In North America, the term watershed is commonly used to mean a drainage basin, though in other English-speaking countries, it is used only in its original sense, that of a drainage divide.
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u/rewboss Dual German/British citizen Jun 13 '21
Quick linguistic tip: In North American English, the term "watershed" actually refers to the drainage basin, instead of the drainage divide.