lake

English has two words spelled lake: a body of water, from Latin lacus, and a red pigment, from the same source as lac.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /leɪk/^[4]

lake¹ body of water

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lac, later lake,^[1] partly inherited from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond”) and partly borrowed from Old French lac,^[1] and directly from Latin lacus (“pond, pool, lake; basin, tank”),^[5][1] related to lacūna (“hole, pit”).^[5][6] It is from Proto-Indo-European *laku- (“body of water, lake, sea”),^[5][1] the source also of Greek lákkos “pit, pond”, Old Church Slavonic loky “pool” and Old Irish loch “lake”.^[5][1] A Germanic branch gave Old Norse lǫgr “sea, water” and Old English lagu.^[5][1] In Middle English the native word could also mean “stream, ditch, marsh, grave, pit of hell”, and this may have influenced or merged with the borrowed one.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 1121 in Barnhart,^[1] the early 12th century in Etymonline,^[5] and about 1205 in the OED, of a large body of water surrounded by land.^[7] Old English lacu is found in 944, in a charter of King Edmund I.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A lake was once also a pond or pool, a sense the OED marks obsolete.^[7][6] After the Vulgate's lacus it meant a pit, a den of lions, or a grave, from about 1320.^[7][3] The Great Lake, a phrase borrowed from North American Indians, was the Atlantic Ocean.^[7] Latin lacuna, a small lacus, became Spanish and Italian laguna and English lagoon.^[6]

Timeline

• 944 – Old English lacu in a charter.^[1]
• before 1121 – lac.^[1]
• c. 1205 – a large body of water.^[7]
• c. 1320 – a pit, a grave.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large inland body of fresh or salt water.
2. An ornamental pond, as in a park.
3. A large pool of a liquid: a lake of oil.

Word family

• lakeside
• lakefront
• lakeshore

lake² pigment

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French laque,^[5][2] from laca,^[1][2] from Arabic لك (lakk),^[1][2] from Persian لاک (lāk),^[2] the source of lac;^[5][2] the pigment was first obtained from lac.^[5] Hoad calls it an unexplained variant of lac.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A deep red colouring matter: 1598 in Merriam-Webster,^[2] 1616 in Barnhart^[1] and the 1610s in Etymonline.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It came to mean any pigment made of a dye fixed on a metallic base, used in dyes, inks and paints.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1598 – a red pigment.^[2]
• 1616 – first in Barnhart.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A pigment made of an organic dye on a mineral base, used in dyes, inks and paints.
2. A deep red colour.

Related words

• lacustrine
• loch
• lough
• lagoon
• lacuna
• lac
• lacquer

Usage notes

In northern English dialect lake or laik means “to play”, from Old Norse leika.^[5][2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)