Linn, Llyn, Loch, Lode: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning River, Lake

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place"). Rivers, lakes, and other freshwater bodies are important examples of topographic features.

In the current alphabetic series of words that name such freshwater features, here are the origins, forms, and histories of linn, llyn, loch, and lode. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Linn, Llyn
The Modern English water-related word linn (18th century) comes from the earlier forms lin (16th century), lyn (16th century), and lynn (16th century), from Scottish Gaelic linne ("pool"). The word may be related to Old English hlynn ("a torrent running over rocks") and may be akin to Greek plein ("to sail, float").

Linn is used mainly in Scotland with two different meanings: a waterfall, a cascade, or a cataract (16th century); and a pool of water, especially one directly below a fall of water (16th century).

Linn is akin to Welsh llyn, which denotes a lake or a pool in Wales.

Loch
Modern English loch (16th century) comes from Middle English louch (14th century) and locht (14th century), from Scottish Gaelic loch. The word is akin to Old Irish loch ("lake, pond") and Latin lacus ("lake").

Loch is used in Scotland to denote a lake (14th century). A small lake is a lochan (1670), a diminutive of loch.

The most famous loch is Loch Ness, in the Highland region of northwestern Scotland. It goes as deep as 788 feet, extends about 23 miles long, and has the largest volume of freshwater in Great Britain. Reports of an aquatic monster at Loch Ness date back centuries but remain unproven.

Another important loch is Loch Lomond, at the south central edge of the Scottish Highlands. It is the country's largest lake: 24 miles long and 0.75 to 5 miles wide, with an area of 27 square miles.

Lode
Modern English lode comes from Middle English lode (14th century), from Old English lad (before 12th century). The word is akin to Old English lithan ("to go") and Old Norse leith ("way, course").

The original meaning of lode is any way or course (c. 1000). That sense is obsolete except as a dialectal word meaning a road in England.

Another dialectal use of lode in England is to denote a waterway or canal, that is, a navigable body of water (16th century).
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.