Windermere

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A major glacial lake situated in the Lake District of Cumbria in northwestern England, the largest natural body of freshwater in that region
2. England's biggest natural lake, located in the mountainous Lake District area of the northwest and popular for tourism and water sports
3. The largest natural freshwater lake in England, found in the scenic Lake District of Cumbria in the northwest of the country

Etymology: Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, and its name is a record of several languages meeting on one shore. The first element goes back to a personal name, Wînand, from a Continental Germanic language, which points to a man whose name had travelled into the north long before the lake was named after him. Viking-age settlers in the Lake District then added the Old Norse genitive ending "-ar", marking possession, so the phrase meant something like "Winand's" lake. Finally, Old English "mere", meaning lake or pond, was attached at the end. The result is a doubled description. The Norse-speaking settlers had their own word for lake, "vatn", which survives in many northern place names, yet the English-speaking people who later took over the area kept "mere" as the final element. So the name combines a Germanic personal name, a Norse possessive, and an Old English word for lake, with the whole structure meaning "Winand's lake."