cairn

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɛən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɛəɹn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)n

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.

• “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.

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

• IPA^(key): /kɛʁn/

• Audio

  (file)

cairn m (plural cairns)

1. cairn

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

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /kɑːɾˠn̠ʲ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /kaːɾˠn̠ʲ/[1]

cairn

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