Loch

Loch (/lɒx/ LOKH) is a word meaning "lake" or "sea inlet" in Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough".[1] A small loch is sometimes called a lochan. Lochs which connect to the sea may be called "sea lochs" or "sea loughs".

## Contents

* 1 Background
* 2 Scottish lakes
* 3 Lochs outside Scotland and Ireland
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## Background

Looking down Loch Long, a long sea loch Loch Lubnaig, a reservoir The Lake of Menteith (Loch Innis MoCholmaig) Loch Derculich in Perthshire

Loch, as a name for a body of water, is Insular Celtic[2] in origin and is applied to most lakes and many sea inlands in Scotland.

Many of the loughs in Northern England have also previously been called "meres" (a Northern English dialect word for "lake", and an archaic Standard English word meaning "a lake that is broad in relation to its depth"), similar to the Dutch meer, such as the Black Lough in Northumberland.[3]

Some lochs in Southern Scotland have a Brythonic, rather than Goidelic, etymology, such as Loch Ryan, where the Gaelic loch has replaced a Cumbric equivalent of Welsh llwch.[4] The same is, perhaps, the case for bodies of water in Northern England named with 'Low' or 'Lough', or else represents a borrowing of the Brythonic word into the Northumbrian dialect of Old English.[4]

## Scottish lakes

Scotland has very few bodies of water called lakes. The Lake of Menteith, an Anglicisation of the Scots Laich o Menteith meaning a "low-lying bit of land in Menteith", is applied to the loch there because of the similarity of the sounds of the words laich and lake. Until the 19th century the body of water was known as the Loch of Menteith.[5] The Lake of the Hirsel, Pressmennan Lake, Lake Louise and Raith Lake are man-made bodies of water in Scotland, referred to as lakes.

## Lochs outside Scotland and Ireland

The United States naval port of Pearl Harbor, on the south coast of the main Hawaiian island of Oʻahu, is one of a complex of sea inlets. It contains three subareas called 'lochs' named East, Middle, and West[6] or Kaihuopala‘ai, Wai‘awa, and Komoawa.[7]

Loch Raven Reservoir is a reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland.

Brenton Loch in the Falkland Islands is a sea loch, near Lafonia, East Falkland.

In the Scottish settlement of Glengarry County in present-day Eastern Ontario, there is a lake called Loch Garry.[8] Loch Garry was named by those who settled in the area, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, after the well-known loch their clan is from, Loch Garry in Scotland. Similarly, lakes named Loch Broom, Big Loch, Greendale Loch, and Loch Lomond can be found in Nova Scotia, along with Loch Leven in Newfoundland, and Loch Leven in Saskatchewan.

Loch Fyne is a fjord in Greenland named by Douglas Clavering in 1823.

## See also

* List of lochs of Scotland
* List of loughs of Ireland
* List of loughs of England
* Ria
* Lake-burst

## References

1. ↑ lough (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press, September 2005, http://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=lough (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ↑ The current form has currency in the following languages: Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Manx, and has been borrowed into Lowland Scots, Scottish English, Irish English and Standard English.
3. ↑ Beckensall, Stan (2004), Northumberland Place-Names, Thropton, Morpeth, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, ISBN 978-0-946928-41-5
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Alan, James. "Brittonic Language In The Old North - A Guide To Place Name Elements". http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary.pdf.
5. ↑ "Lake of Menteith | Scotland's Only Lake | Trossachs.co.uk". https://trossachs.co.uk/lochs/lake-of-menteith/.
6. ↑ "Pearl Harbor Ablaze Again: The West Loch Disaster" (in en-US). https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1944/west-loch.html.
7. ↑ "Pearl Lochs" (in en-US). 2024-03-15. https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/pearl-lochs/.
8. ↑ "Lochgarrylakeassociation - LGLA Action". http://www.lochgarrylakeassociation.ca/lgla-action/.

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