cromlech
nounUK /ˈkɹɒmlɛk/ · US /ˈkɹɑmˌlɛk/
Etymology Borrowed from Welsh cromlech, from crom (the feminine singular form of crwm (“bent, bowed, curved”), ultimately from Proto-Celtic *krumbos (“bent, crooked”) and Proto-Germanic *krumpaz (“bent, crooked, curved”); further etymology uncertain) + llech (“flagstone, slab of stone”) (ultimately from Proto-Celtic *ɸlikkā (“(flat) stone”) and Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”)). Sense 1 (“stone circle”) is from Breton cromlec'h, krommlec'h probably from Welsh cromlech: see above.
Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences Synonym of stone circle (“a prehistoric monument consisting of standing stones arranged in a circle”), especially one located in Brittany, France.
Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences UK, Wales synonym of altar tomb or dolmen (“a prehistoric megalithic tomb consisting of a (somewhat) flat capstone lying horizontally on two or more upright stones”), especially one located in Wales, but also in England (chiefly Cornwall and Devon) or Ireland.
- The korreds are supposed to live in the cromlechs, of which they are believed to have been the builders. They dance around them at night, and betide the unhappy peasant who joins them in their roundels.1881, Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, page 381:
- The scenes depicted on the emunctory field, showing our ancient duns and raths and cromlechs and grianauns and seats of learning and maledictive stones, are as wonderfully beautiful and the pigments as delicate as when the Sligo illuminators gave free rein to their artistic fantasy long long ago in the time of the Barmecides.1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 318:
- Synonyms
- bowing stone