cairn

English

The Cairn of Gavrinis, Brittany

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): /kɛəɹn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• 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.
   • 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.
   • 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.

Synonyms

• burial mound

Derived terms

• cairned (adjective)
• cairnless
• cairn terrier
• Cairn Water
• cairny
• Clava cairn

Translations

monument

• Chinese: 石冢 (shízhǒng)
• Danish: stendynge c
• Estonian: kivikuhil
• 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)
• 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)

References

• “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

• CARIN, Crain, Nicar., racin'

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (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.

Irish

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /kɑːɾˠn̠ʲ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /kaːɾˠn̠ʲ/

Noun

cairn

1. inflection of carn:
   1. vocative/genitive singular
   2. nominative/dative plural

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cairn	chairn	gcairn
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.