lowland

Etymology

It is a compound from English low + land.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The word began in Scotland, with reference to the southern and eastern regions of the country,^[3][2] and the Scots variants with a reduced first syllable gave Lallans, recorded from Burns in 1786.^[2][4] Its dialect forms include Scots lallan, lawland, lawlan and laighland.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Lowlands, the less mountainous region of Scotland south and east of the Highlands: 1425, in the records of the Parliament of Scotland.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun to about 1500, also with reference to Scotland,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1500–10.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Scottish name came first, and the general sense of low-lying, fairly flat land, lower than the regions around it, followed in 1488, also in a Scottish act of Parliament;^[2] in the plural it is recorded from before 1522, in Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid.^[2] The adjective, of or belonging to the Scottish Lowlands, dates from 1504 and the general adjective from 1567.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1560s.^[3] In the late 17th century the Lowlands could also mean the Low Countries, a use now historical.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as country low compared with the hills around it, and also as marsh, quoting Dryden on "the lowland damps".^[8] From 1822, in Scott's Fortunes of Nigel, the word could also name the Scots language of the Lowlands, now rare;^[2] in Scots dialect this was braid Lallans, as in Burns.^[7] Lowlander followed in 1621.^[2]

Timeline

• 1425 – the Lowlands, the lowland region of Scotland.^[2]
• 1488 – low-lying, fairly flat land.^[2]
• 1504 – adjective, of the Scottish Lowlands.^[2][5]
• before 1522 – plural, lowlands, low-lying land.^[2]
• 1567 – adjective, of or living in lowland in general.^[2]
• c. 1685 – the Lowlands, the Low Countries (now historical).^[2]
• 1822 – the Scots speech of the Lowlands (now rare).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Land that is low and fairly level compared with the country around it; often in the plural: The river floods the lowlands every spring.^[5][2][4]
2. the Lowlands: the less mountainous southern and eastern part of Scotland, as opposed to the Highlands.^[2][4][5]
3. (historical) the Lowlands: the Low Countries.^[2][4]

Adjective

1. Of, living in or growing in a lowland: lowland forests.^[5][2]
2. Usually capitalised, of or typical of the Scottish Lowlands or their speech.^[5][2]

Word family

• lowlander

Related words

• low
• land
• Lallans

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.