''Loch'' ( ) is a word meaning "lake" or "inlet, sea inlet" in Scottish Gaelic, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough". A small loch is sometimes called a lochan. Lochs which connect to the sea may be called "sea lochs" or "sea loughs".

Background

This name for a body of water is Insular Celtic languages, Insular CelticThe current form has currency in the following languages: Scottish Gaelic, Irish language, Irish, Manx language, Manx, and has been borrowed into Scots language, Lowland Scots, Scottish English, Irish English and Standard English. in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north of Scotland. Many of the loughs in Northern England have also previously been called "meres" (a Northern English dialect word for "lake", and an archaic Standard English word meaning "a lake that is broad in relation to its depth"), similar to the Dutch language, Dutch , such as the ''Black Lough'' in Northumberland. Some lochs in Southern Scotland have a Brittonic languages, Brythonic, rather than Goidelic languages, Goidelic, etymology, such as Loch Ryan, where the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic has replaced a Cumbric equivalent of Welsh . The same is, perhaps, the case for bodies of water in Northern England named with 'Low' or 'Lough', or else represents a borrowing of the Brythonic word into the Northumbrian dialect of Old English.

Scottish lakes

Scotland has very few bodies of water called lakes. The Lake of Menteith, an Anglicisation of the Scots language, Scots ''Laich o Menteith'' meaning a "low-lying bit of land in Menteith", is applied to the loch there because of the similarity of the sounds of the words ''laich'' and ''lake''. Until the 19th century the body of water was known as the ''Loch of Menteith''. The Lake of the Hirsel, Pressmennan Lake, Lake Louise (Skibo Castle), Lake Louise and Raith Lake are man-made bodies of water in Scotland, referred to as lakes.

Lochs outside Scotland and Ireland

As "loch" is a common Gaelic word, it is found as the root of several Manx language, Manx place names. The United States naval port of Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, on the south coast of the main Hawaiian island of Oahu, Oʻahu, is one of a complex of sea inlets. It contains three subareas called 'lochs' named East, Middle, and West or Kaihuopala‘ai, Wai‘awa, and Komoawa. Loch Raven Reservoir is a reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland. Brenton Loch in the Falkland Islands is a sea loch, near Lafonia, East Falkland. In the Scottish settlement of Glengarry County, Ontario, Glengarry County in present-day Eastern Ontario, there is a lake called Loch Garry. Loch Garry was named by those who settled in the area, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, after the well-known loch their clan is from, Loch Garry in Scotland. Similarly, lakes named Loch Broom, Big Loch, Greendale Loch, and Loch Lomond (Cape Breton), Loch Lomond can be found in Nova Scotia, along with Loch Leven, Newfoundland and Labrador, Loch Leven in Newfoundland, and Loch Leven, Saskatchewan, Loch Leven in Saskatchewan. Loch Fyne (Greenland), Loch Fyne is a fjord in Greenland named by Douglas Clavering in 1823.

References

{{Wiktionary, loch Lakes, * Highlands and Islands of Scotland Scottish coast and countryside Hydronymy Lochs of Scotland, Lakes of the Republic of Ireland, Shibboleths Lakes of Northern Ireland

Background

Scottish lakes

Lochs outside Scotland and Ireland

See also

References