Max Vasmer in his etymological dictionary notes that the historical name of the river mentioned in the earliest East Slavic document, the Primary Chronicle, is Pripet' (Припеть), and cites the opinion of other linguists that the name meant "tributary", comparing with Greek and Latin roots.

[3] The Pripyat passes through the exclusion zone established around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The city of Pripyat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster.

After 204 km downstream, it crosses the border of Belarus, where it travels 500 km through Polesia, Europe's largest wilderness, within which lie the vast sandy wetlands known as the Pinsk marshes, a dense network of swamps, bogs, rivers and rivulets within a forested basin.

The width of the floodplain in the upper course of 2–4 km and more, in some years, is flooded for several months.