Etymologically
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lagoon

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ləˈɡuːn/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French lagune[2][3][4][5] and borrowed from Italian laguna (“pond, lake”),[2][3][4][5] from Latin lacūna (“pool, hollow, gap”),[2][3][4][5] from lacus “lake”.[2][3][4][5] It is related to lake and lacuna.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An area of salt or brackish water separated from the sea by low sandbanks, especially those near Venice (1612).[7][4] The earliest English forms are laguna (1612) and lagune (1673).[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In English the word originally referred to the region of Venice.[5][4] In 1769 Captain Cook applied it to the lake-like water enclosed in a South Sea atoll,[5][7] and in America and Australia it was used of shallow freshwater ponds.[7] From 1909 it also names an artificial pool for treating sewage or waste.[7][2][3]

Timeline

  • 1612 – laguna, a coastal saltwater lagoon near Venice.[7][4]
  • 1673 – lagune.[4][3]
  • 1769 – the water inside an atoll.[7][5]
  • 1909 – an artificial pool for sewage treatment.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A shallow body of water separated from the sea by sandbars, dunes or coral reefs.
  2. A shallow pond or channel near or connected with a larger body of water.
  3. A shallow artificial pool for the treatment or storage of sewage or other liquid waste.

Word family

  • lagoonal
  • lake
  • lacuna

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press