tarn
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
noun
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a department of S France, in Midi-Pyrénées region. Capital: Albi. Pop: 350 477 (2003 est). Area: 5780 sq km (2254 sq miles)
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a river in SW France, rising in the Massif Central and flowing generally west to the Garonne River. Length: 375 km (233 miles)
Etymology
Origin of tarn
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English terne, tarne, from Old Norse tjǫrn “pond, pool.” Tarn was originally restricted to northern English dialects (where the Danes settled) or in written works about northern England. Tarn entered mainstream English in the works of the Lake Poets ( def. )
Explanation
A mountain pool that forms in a hollow scooped out by a glacier is called a tarn. Officially, tarns are smaller than lakes. Another name for a tarn is a corrie loch, from the Scottish Gaelic coire, or "pot," and loch, "lake." These glacier-formed pools are found all over the world, from New York's Adirondack Mountains to the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia. The word tarn comes from the Old Norse tjörn, "small mountain lake with no tributaries."
Vocabulary lists containing tarn
Physical Geography - High School
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Stories of Ourselves
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Beowulf
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
An invasive alligator snapping turtle has been pulled from a Cumbrian tarn.
From BBC • Feb. 9, 2024
After the glacier is gone, the bowl at the bottom of the cirque is often occupied by a lake called a tarn.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2017
I learned that a tarn is a pond, a gill is a stream, and duckboards are slats across boggy ground.
From Washington Post • Feb. 19, 2015
Primum, constat nullum habuisse tarn pugnare: quod exsurrexerunt, quia non debuit.
From Slate • Feb. 11, 2013
In one place a forest of giant madrone trees joined their tops over a true tarn, a black, spring-fed lake.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
