In local usage, a burn is a kind of

watercourse A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

. The term applies to a large stream or a small

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

. The word is used in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

(especially

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authori ...

) and in parts of

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

, Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

Etymology

The

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical e ...

of ''burn'' in standard English is "bourn", " bourne", "borne", "born", which is retained in placenames like ''

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the English ...

'', '' King's Somborne'', ''

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon ...

'', ''

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

''. A cognate in German is ''Born'' (contemp. ''Brunnen''), meaning "well", "spring" or "source", which is retained in placenames like ''

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for th ...

'' in Germany. Both the English and German words derive from the same

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

root.

Scots Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well a ...

has the word ''bùrn'', also cognate, but which means "

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

"; the actual Gaelic for a "burn" is ''allt'' (sometimes anglicised as "ault" or "auld" in placenames.)

Examples

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and nort ...

* Broxburn *

Bucks Burn The Bucks Burn is a stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or ce ...

* Burnside *

Braid Burn The Braid Burn is a burn or stream in length that flows through south and east Edinburgh. Course The burn forms near Bonaly in the Pentland Hills south-west of the city, when the Bonaly and Howden burns that flow from the Pentlands meet. Fro ...

* Dighty Burn *

Burn Dale The Burn Dale ( Irish: ''An Daoil'', meaning 'the Black One' Patrick McKay, ''A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names'', p. 54. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, 1999.) is a burn or small river in the east of ...

, East Donegal * Burnfoot,

Inishowen Inishowen () is a peninsula in the north of County Donegal in Ireland. Inishowen is the largest peninsula on the island of Ireland. The Inishowen peninsula includes Ireland's most northerly point, Malin Head. The Grianan of Aileach, a ringf ...

* Burn of Elsick * Burn of Pheppie * Burn of Muchalls *

Bannockburn Bannockburn (Scottish Gaelic ''Allt a' Bhonnaich'') is an area immediately south of the centre of Stirling in Scotland. It is part of the City of Stirling. It is named after the Bannock Burn, a stream running through the town before flowing in ...

Crawfordsburn Crawfordsburn () is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. The village, which is now effectively a commuter suburb, lies between Holywood and Bangor to the north of the A2 road, about 4 km west of Bangor town centre. Bounded ...

* Cronaniv Burn, '' Gaoth Dobhair'' * Gisburn *

Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the sou ...

* Jordan Burn * Kilburn (disambiguation) *

Lyburn Lyburn is an unincorporated mining community in Logan County, West Virginia, United States. Lyburn is also the home of the Bearwallow trailhead for the Hatfield-Mccoy ATV trail. Mining accident In 2002, a slurry pond break in the head of a hollow ...

* Ouseburn *

Routeburn Track The Routeburn Track is a world-renowned, 32 km tramping (hiking) track found in the South Island of New Zealand. The track can be done in either direction, starting on the Queenstown side of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, at ...

* Seaburn * Seaton Burn *

Shirburn Shirburn is a village and civil parish about south of Thame in Oxfordshire. It contains the Grade I listed, 14th-century Shirburn Castle, along with its surrounding, Grade II listed park, and a parish church, the oldest part of which is from ...

Tedburn Tedburn St Mary is a village and civil parish in the Teignbridge district of Devon, England, approximately 8 miles west of Exeter. It has a population of approximately 1500. The village is the principal population centre of the electoral ward c ...

Tyburn Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern ...

* Westburn * Whitburn *

Whitlawburn Whitlawburn is a residential area in the town of Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located south of the town centre on high ground overlooking the Greater Glasgow urban area. Location and housing The majority of the housing is a l ...

* Winkburn * Winterburn * Wooburn

References

External links

Scottish Words and Place-Names:Place-Name Glossary
{{authority control Water streams Landforms Northumbrian folklore Rural Scotland Scots language Scottish English Scottish toponyms Rivers of Scotland Rivers of Northumberland Rivers of Ireland