Tarras Water is a river in

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

, Scotland. R.H. Traquair named a fossil of an extinct, prehistoric

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

''Tarrasius problematicus'' after the Tarras Water. The name has subsequently been applied to the genus Tarrasiidae and the order

Tarrasiiformes Tarasiiformes is an extinct order of prehistoric Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish. Taxonomy * Order †Tarrasiiformes sensu Lund & Poplin 2002 aplistia** Family †Tarrasiidae Traquair 1881 emend. Woodward 1891 *** Genus †''Apholidotos'' Lu ...

Etymology

The name ''Tarras'' is of Brittonic origin. It is derived from the elements ''*tā-'', with a root sense of "melting, thawing, dissolving" (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''tābeō'', "melt") and ''-ar'', an adjectival suffix frequently occurring in river-names (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

''-ar''), with the Scots plural ''-s''.

Course

The Tarras Water rises to the west of Roan Fell, near the boundary with the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. It flows over 11 miles (17 km) south to join the River Esk 2 miles (3 km) south of

Langholm Langholm , also known colloquially as the "Muckle Toon", is a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland. Langholm lies between four hills in the valley of the River Esk in the Southern Uplands. Location and geography Langholm sits n ...

opposite Auchenrivock.

Poetry

''Tarras Water'' was a nature poem by

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (2 October 1878 – 26 May 1962) was a British Georgian poet, who was associated with World War I but continued publishing poetry into the 1940s and 1950s. Early work Gibson was born in Hexham, Northumberland. His parents ...

References

{{reflist 1Tarras