Etymologically
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loch

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /lɒk/, /lɒx/[1]
  • US: /lɑk/, /lɑx/[1]

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

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