▪ I. tarn
(tɑːn)
Forms: 4–5 terne, 5–6 tarne, 7 tearn, (8 Sc. tairn), 7– tarn.
[ME. terne, a. ON. *tarnu, tjorn, tjörn; = Swed. dial. tjärn, tärn, Norw. tjörn, Da. tjern.]
A small mountain lake, having no significant tributaries. (Originally local northern English, now generally used by geologists and geographers.)
| [1256 Assize Roll 979 m. 10 d (Westmorland), Agnes..appellat..Edelinam filiam Ricardi de Blaterne [= Blea-tarn] quod ipsa dederat ei potum mortiferum bibere.] 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1041 Þer ar tres by þat terne of traytoures. c 1420 Avow. Arth. x, Gauan, with any more, To the tarne con he fore, To wake hit to day. 14.. (heading) The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne. 1587 Harrison England i. xv. in Holinshed I. 95/1 The Air or Arre riseth out of a lake or tarne south of Darnbrooke. 1674 Ray N.C. Words, A Tarn, a Lake or Meer-pool, a usual word in the North. 1797 Coleridge Christabel i. Concl. 28 By tairn and rill, The night-birds all that hour were still. 1810 Wordsw. Scenery Lakes i. (1823) 24 Tarns are found in some of the vales, and are numerous upon the mountains. 1813 Scott Trierm. i. x, Though never sun⁓beam could discern The surface of that sable tarn, In whose black mirror you may spy The stars, while noon-tide lights the sky. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. v. 235 The largest river in the world takes its most remote origin among the Andean Highlands, in a little inky tarn. |
b. attrib. and Comb.
| 1873 M. Collins Miranda II. 83 Miranda, whose aureate hair and tarn-brown eyes had something unique about them. 1884 Swinburne W. Collins Misc. (1886) 59 A picture of upland fell and tarnside copse in the curving hollow of a moor. 1886 Burton Arab. Nts. (abr. ed.) I. 72 The sorceress took in hand some of the tarn-water. 1903 Smart Set IX. 133/2 Hers is one of those clear, tarnlike natures which one gauges quickly. |
▪ II. tarn
obs. and dial. form of tern, the sea-bird.