cairn
nounUK /kɛən/ · US /kɛ(ə)ɹn/
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.
1
A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument.
- "Now here let us place the gray stone of her cairn: / Why speak ye no word!"—said Glenara the stern.1826, Thomas Campbell, “Glenara”, in The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, page 105:
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.
- 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.1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 180:
3
A cairn terrier.
- Derived terms
- cairned, cairnless, cairnlike, cairn terrier, Cairn Water, Cairnwood, cairny, Clava cairn, Tate's Cairn