Burn (landform)
In local usage, a burn is a kind of watercourse. The term applies to a large stream or a small river. The word is used in Scotland and England (especially North East England) and in parts of Ulster, Kansas, Australia and New Zealand.
Etymology[edit]
The cognate of burn in standard English is "bourn", "bourne", "borne", "born", which is retained in placenames like Bournemouth, King's Somborne, Holborn, Melbourne. A cognate in German is Born[1] (contemp. Brunnen), meaning "well", "spring" or "source", which is retained in placenames like Paderborn in Germany. Both the English and German words derive from the same Proto-Germanic root.[2]
Scots Gaelic has the word bùrn, also cognate, but which means "fresh water"; the actual Gaelic for a "burn" is allt (sometimes anglicised as "ault" or "auld" in placenames.)
Examples[edit]
- Blackburn
- Broxburn
- Bucks Burn
- Burnside
- Braid Burn
- Dighty Burn
- Burn Dale, East Donegal
- Burnfoot, Inishowen
- Burn of Elsick
- Burn of Pheppie
- Burn of Muchalls
- Bannockburn
- Crawfordsburn
- Cronaniv Burn, Gaoth Dobhair
- Gisburn
- Hebburn
- Jordan Burn
- Kilburn (disambiguation)
- Lyburn
- Ouseburn
- Routeburn Track
- Seaburn
- Seaton Burn
- Shirburn
- Tedburn
- Tyburn
- Westburn
- Whitburn
- Whitlawburn
- Winkburn
- Winterburn
- Wooburn
References[edit]
- ^ "DWDS | Suchergebnisse für Born" (in German). Dwds.de. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
