tarn

Meaning

Noun

• A small mountain lake, especially in Northern England.
• One of many small mountain lakes or ponds.

Origin

• From Middle English terne, tarne, from Old Norse tjǫrn ("a small lake without tributaries"), from Proto-Germanic *ternō ("water hole"), perhaps related to *turnaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *der- ("to separate, split; to crack, shatter"). The word is cognate with Danish tjern, Faroese tjørn ("pond"), Icelandic tjörn ("pond"), Norwegian Bokmål tjern ("small forest or mountain lake") (Norwegian Nynorsk tjern, tjørn), Swedish tjärn ("small forest lake").