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lake

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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.

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)