cairn
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English
Etymology
From Scots cairn, from Scottish Gaelic càrn, from Old Irish carn, from Proto-Celtic *karnos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn”).
Compare Welsh carn, Cornish carn. Doublet of carn and horn.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɛən/
- (General American) IPA(key): /kɛəɹn/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)n
Noun
cairn (plural cairns)
- A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument.
- Synonym: See burial mound § Synonyms
- 1826, Thomas Campbell, “Glenara”, in The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, page 105:
- "Now here let us place the gray stone of her cairn: / Why speak ye no word!"—said Glenara the stern.
- A pile of stones heaped up as a landmark, to guide travelers on land or at sea, or to arrest attention, as in surveying, or in leaving traces of an exploring party, etc.
- Hypernym: marker
- 1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 180:
- After fifteen minutes of this we were glad to reach a high saddle on which former travellers had piled little cairns of commemoration and thankfulness.
- A cairn terrier.
Derived terms
Translations
monument
|
landmark
|
terrier — see cairn terrier
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading
- “cairn”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “cairn”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Noun
cairn m (plural cairns)
Further reading
- “cairn”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Irish
Pronunciation
Noun
cairn
Mutation
Irish mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
cairn | chairn | gcairn |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
References
- ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 97
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Scots
- English terms derived from Scots
- English terms derived from Scottish Gaelic
- English terms derived from Old Irish
- English terms derived from Proto-Celtic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛə(ɹ)n
- Rhymes:English/ɛə(ɹ)n/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Dogs
- en:Nautical
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Irish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Irish non-lemma forms
- Irish noun forms