Lown

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Sheltered from the wind and quiet or still ; a snug, calm spot protected from bad weather
2. Free from wind and gusts, with a peaceful stillness ; a sheltered area where the air stays calm
3. Describing a place or weather that is calm and protected from the breeze ; a sheltered nook where the wind does not reach

Etymology: Lown is a word that began as a description of water rather than of shelter. Its ancestor, Old Norse "logn", meant the stillness of the wind, and a related Proto-Norse form referred to a place where the water lay smooth. That sense of calm, sheltered water is what the word kept as it passed into Middle English as "lune," and the sense of being sheltered from the wind came later, from the same idea of a quiet spot where the air and water stopped moving. The root behind all this is a prehistoric word meaning "bright," describing the shine of water. Related Germanic words show the same thread: Icelandic "lón" means a sheltered lagoon, Danish "lyn" means lightning, and Swedish "lugn" means calm water. The connection between a flash of light and a calm lake is an old one in these languages, and lown sits on the quiet side of that pairing.

Synonyms: calm, quiet, still, peaceful

Antonyms: loud, stormy, noisy