Origin of the word "lake": Difference between revisions

The word ''lake'' has a complicated and, in part, an uncertain history due to a merging of inherited Middle English ''[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED24590/track?counter=1&search_id=23362984 lakelāk(e]'', ("small stream of running water, pool, lake"), with Middle English ''lac'' ("lake"), which comes from Old French ''[[wiktionary:lac#Old_French|lac]]'' ("lake") or Latin ''[[wiktionary:lacus#Latin|lacus]]'' ("lake, pond, basin, reservoir").

****Middle English: '''''[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED24590/track?counter=1&search_id=23368488 lākelac, laclāk(e]''''' → expanse of water, lake, pond, pool, reservoir (+ others)

The displacement of Old French ''lai'' could have been assisted by influence from the early Middle English words ''lac, lace'', and the Old English word ''lacu'' (“pool"pool, pond, lake”lake"), as a result of ''lac's'' sudden spread in Old French. This was brought about following the annexation of English controlled Normandy into the kingdom of France in 1204. A full-out borrowing of the term from Middle English rather than from the Latin is also not an impossibility, as the earliest attestations of Old French ''lac'' are in the {{w1|Eadwine Psalter}} (written by Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman scribes in England) and {{w1|Erec and Enide}} (an Arthurian romance, whose author was heavily influenced by English, Anglo-Norman, and Celtic writings).<ref>''[[Wiktionary:lac#Old_French|Lac]]''. [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page Wiktionary] Accessed 27 April, 2023.</ref>

''Lake'' in the present instance is simply a large body of water that is completely surrounded by land, which easily describes all of the big lakes in the Lake District regardless of location. This could also be taken to mean any of the largest tarns, which in their own right are fairly large bodies of water surrounded by land, however, this can be a somewhat grey area and the crossover between lake and tarn, especially regarding size, is ambiguous.