lown

See also: Lown

English

From Middle English lune, borrowed from Old Norse logn (“windstillness”), from Proto-Norse *lugna, meaning "place where the water is smooth", ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright”), referring to shining water. Germanic cognates include Icelandic lón, Danish lyn (“lightning”), Swedish lugn (“calm water”).^[1]^[2]^[3]

lown (plural lowns)

(Scotland) Calm, tranquillity. [from 13th c.]
A shelter; a calm or peaceful place. [from 17th c.]
- 1958, Michael Harrington, Sea Stories from Newfoundland:
  He had no alternative to the slim chance of safety offered by the ‘lun’ of Cat Harbour, Northern Island.

lown (comparative lowner, superlative lownest)

(chiefly Scotland) Peaceful, calm. [from 15th c.]^[4]
- 1826 April, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine:
  Ye may hear him, on a lown day, at every farm-house in the parish.

^ “lown”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2021.
^ de Vries, Jan (1977) Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Old Norse Etymological Dictionary]‎^[1] (in German), 2nd revised edition, Leiden: Brill, page 364
^ Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 687-90
^ “lown”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

See loon.

lown (plural lowns)