Scafell

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A high peak in the Lake District national park of northwestern England, forming part of the range known as the Scafell massif
2. The tallest mountain in England, located in the Cumbrian fells of the Lake District in the northwest of the country
3. A rugged summit in the Lake District of Cumbria, England, notable as the highest ground in the English mountains of that region

Etymology: Scafell is the name of a mountain in the English Lake District, and its name is a plain piece of Norse description. It comes from Old Norse "skalli", meaning "baldness", and "fjall", meaning "peak" or "mountain". The name passed into Middle English as "Scalfel", and the mountain was recorded as "Skallfield" in 1578. The mountain's bare, stony summit clearly gave the Norse-speaking settlers their image: a bald peak. The spelling that most people now see is a comparatively recent settlement. Through the 19th century, the form "Scawfell" was the common one, and it was the Ordnance Survey's adoption of "Scafell" that displaced it. The sound of the name stayed the same throughout; only the written form shifted, as surveyors and mapmakers tried to fix a single version on the page.