loch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English louch, also locht and lauch,^[2][3] borrowed from Scottish Gaelic loch (“lake”),^{[4][5][2][6][7]} from Old Irish loch (“body of water, lake”).^[5][3][8] The OED compares Gaulish loco-, found in place names, and takes the Celtic word from the same Indo-European base as Old English lagu (“sea, water”).^[4] It is cognate with Breton lagen (“lake”) and Latin lacus (“lake”), the source of lake.^[9][10][11] According to the OED, as quoted by Etymonline, the Gaelic word had already been taken into Northumbrian Old English as luh.^[9][12] The Irish form of the same word gave English lough.^[4][9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lake: Barnhart finds lauch in 1375, in Barbour's The Bruce,^[3] while the OED's first quotation, for a lake or an inlet of the sea, is from 1427.^[4][13] The OED adds that the Scots place name le Blaklouch in Roxburghshire, recorded before 1325, already implies the word.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered both inland lakes and the narrow, nearly landlocked arms of the sea of western Scotland, now also called sea lochs.^[4][9][6] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "a lake" and marked it as Scottish.^[14] It stayed a Scottish word, used in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England, where it was also spelled lough and laugh;^[15] Scott used it in Waverley (1814).^[15] The phrase Loch Ness monster is recorded from 1934.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1325 – implied in the Scots place name le Blaklouch.^[4]
• 1375 – lauch, in Barbour's The Bruce.^[3]
• 1427 – a lake; an inlet of the sea.^[4][13]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as a Scottish word for a lake.^[14]
• 1934 – Loch Ness monster.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Scotland) A lake: They rowed out to the island in the middle of the loch.^[16][2][4]
2. (Scotland) A long, narrow bay or arm of the sea, nearly enclosed by land; also called a sea loch.^[16][2][4]

Word family

• Holy Loch
• Loch Ness
• Loch Ness monster

Related words

• lochan
• lough
• lake

Usage notes

In Scotland it is pronounced /lɔx/; elsewhere in Britain both /lɒx/ and /lɒk/ are heard, and in the United States /lɑk/ and /lɑx/.^[4][1] A separate mining word loch, a cavity in a rock or in a mineral vein, especially of a lead mine, is recorded from 1767;^[4][2] its origin is unknown, perhaps German Loch (“hole”).^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
13. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b 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)
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins