Scawfell

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mountain in the Lake District of northwest England, the second highest peak in England after nearby Scafell Pike
2. A rocky peak in the English Lake District, famous among walkers and climbers for its height and dramatic summit
3. An English mountain in Cumbria's Lake District, known for its rugged slopes and its status as one of the country's highest peaks

Etymology: The mountain's name is an older spelling of Scafell, the rugged massif in England's Lake District. Its most likely origin is Old Norse, the language brought by Scandinavian settlers in northern England around the ninth and tenth centuries. The first element is probably "skáli", meaning "hut" or "shelter", and the second is "fjall", meaning "mountain", the source of the northern English word "fell". So the name most likely means something like "hut mountain," perhaps a reference to a shelter used by herders on its slopes. This is a reconstruction from place-name evidence, not a documented record of a settler naming the peak. The "Pike" in Scafell Pike is a later addition. "Pike" is a dialect word for a sharp peak, and it was attached to the summit to distinguish the highest point from the rest of the Scafell range. The combined name is therefore older in its first part than in its second.