lake (n.1) Look up lake at Dictionary body of water, early 12c., from Old French lack and directly from Latin lacus pond, lake, also basin, tank, related to lacuna hole, pit, from PIE *laku- (cognates: Greek lakkos pit, tank, pond, Old Church Slavonic loky pool, puddle, cistern, Old Irish loch lake, pond). The common notion is basin. There was a Germanic form of the word, which yielded cognate Old Norse lögr sea flood, water, Old English lacu stream, lagu sea flood, water, leccan to moisten (see leak (v.)). In Middle English, lake, as a descendant of the Old English word, also could mean stream; river gully; ditch; marsh; grave; pit of hell, and this might have influenced the form of the borrowed word. The North American Great Lakes so called from 1660s. pond (n.) Look up pond at Dictionary c.1300 (mid-13c. in compounds), artificially banked body of water, variant of pound enclosed place (see pound (n.2)). Applied locally to natural pools and small lakes from late 15c. Jocular reference to the Atlantic Ocean dates from 1640s. Pond scum (Spirogyra) is from 1864 (also called frog-spittle and brook-silk. As figurative for someone extremely repulsive, from 1984. etymonline/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=lake&searchmode=none
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 14:35:38 +0000
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