It never occurred to me, but you're absolutely right. It goes back to Latin aquarium; from the same root (i.e. aquarius) comes aquaria, which underlies aiguière and its English equivalent ewer as well as Catalan aigüera.
It probably wouldn't have to me, either, if I hadn't seen the catalan aigüera close by and if I hadn't seen forms with -v- in Romansh (ova, ava) for "water".
But "aquarium", huh? I don't think I'd have come up with that, but now that you mention it, I can see it.
According to Lewis, the original meaning was "a watering place for cattle". The modern use of the term dates back only to 1854; it seems to have been coined afresh by analogy to vivarium.
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It probably wouldn't have to me, either, if I hadn't seen the catalan aigüera close by and if I hadn't seen forms with -v- in Romansh (ova, ava) for "water".
But "aquarium", huh? I don't think I'd have come up with that, but now that you mention it, I can see it.
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