Lake District - Nomenclature

Nomenclature

A number of words and phrases are local to the Lake District and are part of the Cumbrian dialect, though many are shared by other northern dialects. These include:

• fell – from Old Norse fjallr, brought to England by Viking invaders and close to modern Norwegian fjell and Swedish fjäll meaning mountain
• howe – place name from the Old Norse haugr meaning hill, knoll, or mound
• tarn – a word that has been taken to mean a small lake situated in a corrie (the local name for which is cove), a local phrase for any small pool of water. The word is derived from the Old Norse and Norwegian word tjærn
• Yan Tan Tethera – the name for a system of sheep counting which was traditionally used in the Lake District. Though now rare, it is still used by some and taught in local schools.
• Heaf (a variant of heft), the "home territory" of a flock of sheep.