1: a mound of stones piled up as a memorial or to mark a boundary or path
2: small rough-haired breed of terrier from Scotland
The word cairn originated in Scotland and was originally used to describe any pile of rocks. It later was used to describe piles of rocks that were used to mark boundaries or paths through fields.
As for definition #2, they are one of the oldest breeds of dog in Scotland and were used to ferret out vermin from the piles of rocks (cairns) that dotted the landscape. Fiesty, fearless stubborn little dogs... I live with one. I have seen him (15 lbs) go head to head with a 100 lb German Shephard and not back down. If you want a Rottweiler in a small package, check out the Cairn Terrier.
How does everyone here pronounce cairn? I have heard it two different ways. One like the actress of Laugh-in fame Judy Carne or more like Karen. Which do you prefer.
Cairns - Out west they are pronounced 'd-u-c-k-s" I have no clue as to why, but I have heard more than a couple of folks talk about following or looking for the "ducks"
Sorry, but I gotta disagree with the pronunciation of col.
col: pronounced with the o as in column. col is a French word (col
1. defile, mountain pass; 2. neck; 3. collar; 4. pass)
col is from the Latin word for neck, collum.
No discussion of interesting Celtic mountaineering terms can be complete without mentioning Cwm (pronounced "Coom" I think). A non-gallic term for cirque
all this time I thought it was a shortened version of couloir. A quick check with a dictionary revealed that couloir is a deep gorge. Close, but quite different.
Not sure I’m cairn about how to correctly pronounce it, but it’s good to col a pile of rocks by its right name. Of course, with alternative pronunciations in mind, it could be the frigidly col weather that has me in semi-hibernation and bored enough to write drivel like this.
Just an amusing anecdote ... I learned what a "cairn" was back when I was a teenager and first read Stephen King's "Pet Sematary". A plot point was that for something to come back to life, you had to bury them in the thin, rocky, soil, then build a cairn atop the site.
I'm with JohnL on the pronunciation and etymology of "col". In english, I do pronounce it as "call". In french, it is true that there is something of the "coal" aspect to it, but the way most of us say "call" is closer to the french pronunciation than "coal".
Oh, why not? 8 in 10 Adirondack hikers get this one wrong. Colvin, as in Verplanck Colvin, is pronounced "Cahl"-vin, just like the correct pronounciation of col (as in column). Colden (Coal-den), on the other hand, is pronounced correctly be virtually everyone.
C-Ahh!-L
A couloir is a gorge, which of course is the French word for throat. It's not a col, which is a collar, which in turn goes around the throat. But a col doesn't go around a couloir.
I'm always happy when I can get my cul up the couloir to the col.
Oh, and I learned my French from all 4 grandparents, except for the cul word (and a few others), which I learned from my friends!
I never learned the word cairn until much later in life. I had a professor who prounounced it "CARN", or more accurately "CAAHN" (if you can picture a combined Maine and English accent), so I never know how to prounounce it.