English
linn
Linn comes from Old English hlynn ‘torrent’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *hlunni ‘a roar’.
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hlunni‘a roar’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hlynn‘torrent’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*linnereconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 1814linn
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hlunni‘a roar’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hlynn‘torrent’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*linnereconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 1814linn
Earliest quotation: 1814, J. H. Craig pseudonym; James Hogg, The Hunting of Badlewe: A Dramatic Tale: “What seek we here / Amid this waste where…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- ‘to hear’
listen, loud, client, scout, leer, shruti, lithe, umlaut, 14 more
Another origin of linn
- Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*lindos‘lake, liquid’root as named · steps between not traced
- Cumbricmodern*lınn‘lake’uncertain
- Irishc. 1200–presentlinn‘pool, pond’uncertain
- Englishtodaylinn
Conflated to some extent with linn (‘waterfall’).
Today it means
noun A waterfall or cataract (torrent of water running over a rocky bed), or a ravine down which such a waterfall rushes.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *hlunni / linn