cairn

English

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cairn

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Scots cairn, from Scottish Gaelic càrn, from Old Irish carn, from Proto-Celtic *karnos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn”).

Compare Welsh carn, Cornish carn. Doublet of carn and horn.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɛən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɛ(ə)ɹn/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /keːn/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /keən/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /kiən/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /keɹn/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /kɜː(ɹ)n/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)n

Noun

cairn (plural cairns)

1. A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument.

   Synonym: See burial mound § Synonyms

   • 1826, Thomas Campbell, “Glenara”, in The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, page 105:

     "Now here let us place the gray stone of her cairn: / Why speak ye no word!"—said Glenara the stern.

2. A pile of stones heaped up as a landmark, to guide travelers on land or at sea, or to arrest attention, as in surveying, or in leaving traces of an exploring party, etc.

   Hypernym: marker

   • 1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 180:

     After fifteen minutes of this we were glad to reach a high saddle on which former travellers had piled little cairns of commemoration and thankfulness.

3. A cairn terrier.

Derived terms

• cairned (adjective)
• cairnless
• cairnlike
• cairn terrier
• Cairn Water
• Cairnwood
• cairny
• Clava cairn
• Tate's Cairn

Translations

monument

Chinese: Mandarin: 石冢 (shízhǒng) Danish: stendynge c, røse c Estonian: kivikuhil Esperanto: kairno Faroese: dys f Finnish: hautakumpu (fi) French: cairn (fr) m Galician: carnoedo m, milladoiro m German: Steinhügel m Hebrew: גַּלְעֵד (he) m (gal'éd) Icelandic: dys (is) f Irish: carn m, leacht (ga) Japanese: ケアン (kean), ケルン (kerun) Korean: 돌무지 (dolmuji) Malay: batu tanda Maori: hāpapa Norwegian: Bokmål: gravrøys m or f Nynorsk: gravrøys f Portuguese: moledro m Russian: каирн m (kairn) Scottish Gaelic: càrn m Spanish: mojón (es) m, punto de referencia m, montículo (es) Swedish: röse (sv) n, stenröse (sv) n, gravröse n

landmark

Czech: mužik (cs) Danish: varde c Dutch: steenman Faroese: varði m Finnish: kummeli (fi) (seamark) French: montjoie (fr) f Galician: milladoiro m German: Steindaube f, Steinmännchen n, Steinpyramide f, Steinhügel m, Steintürmchen n Greek: σωρόλιθος m (sorólithos) Hungarian: kőhalom (hu) Icelandic: varða (is) f Italian: ometto (it) m Maori: hāpapa Norwegian: varde (no) f, røys (no) f Old Norse: hreysi Portuguese: moledro m Russian: тур (ru) m (tur) Scottish Gaelic: càrn m

terrier — see cairn terrier

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Icelandic: (please verify) varða (is) f Korean: (please verify) 서낭당 (ko) (seonangdang) Mongolian: (please verify) овоо (mn) (ovoo)

Further reading

• “cairn”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “cairn”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Nicar., naric, NICRA, racin', Crain, Rican, CARIN, incar

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛʁn/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

cairn m (plural cairns)

1. cairn

Further reading

• “cairn”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.