linn

• IPA^(key): /lɪn/
• Rhymes: -ɪn

From Scottish Gaelic or Irish linn (“pool, pond”), conflated to some extent with linn (“waterfall”).

linn (plural linns)

A linn, the turbulent pond fed and formed by the falling waters of a cascade

This ravine in Taiwan meets the definition of a linn in the sense of a steep-walled ravine

1. (Scotland, Northern England, Wales) A pool of water, especially one formed and agitated by the water from a cascade.
   • 1812, “Poems”, in Forbes, section 49:

     There frisks the freckl'd finny tribe,
     In linns both wide and steep.

   • 1823, Galt, Gilhaize, section XXVIII:

     In the clear linn the trouts shuttled from stone and crevice.

   • 1868 September 24, James Hardy, addressed delivered at Chirnside, quoted in the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, volume 5, page 386:

     The pool is there — the true linn, in the original acceptance of the word — dark and bottomless.

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Prince Otto:

     A trellised path led down into the valley of the brook, and he turned to follow it. The stream was a breakneck, boiling Highland river. Hard by the farm, it leaped a little precipice in a thick grey-mare's tail of twisted filaments, and then lay and worked and bubbled in a linn. Into the middle of this quaking pool a rock protruded, shelving to a cape; and thither Otto scrambled and sat down to ponder.

   • 1894, Haliburton, Furth, 177:

     His successful angler landing the linn-lier [fish that inhabits a pool of water].

   • 1896, Crockett, Grey Man, vii:

     The running of deep water in a linn.

• lin

From Middle English *linne, from Old English hlynn (“torrent”), though this and linn (“pool”) have been somewhat conflated.

linn (plural linns)

1. (UK dialectal, especially Scotland, Northern England, Wales) A (small or large) waterfall or cataract (torrent of water running over a rocky bed), or a ravine down which such a waterfall rushes.
   • 1814, J. H. Craig [pseudonym; James Hogg], The Hunting of Badlewe: A Dramatic Tale, London: H[enry] Colburn; Edinburgh: G. Goldie, →OCLC, page 1; quoted in “The Hunting of Badlewe, a Dramatic Tale. 8vo. Edin. 1814. [From the Scottish Review.]”, in The Analectic Magazine, Containing Selections from Foreign Reviews and Magazines, together with Original Miscellaneous Compositions, volume V (New Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Published and sold by Moses Thomas, […], May 1815, →OCLC, pages 353–354:

     What seek we here / Amid this waste where desolation scowls, / And the red torrent, brawling down the linn, / Sings everlasting discord?

   • 1844 December, “The Legend of Stumpie's Brae”, in The Dublin University Magazine, page 720:

     "For it's o'er the bank, and it's o'er the linn,
     "And it's up to the meadow ridge—"
     "Ay," quo' the Stumpie hirpling in,

   • 1866, John Harland, Lancashire Lyrics: Modern Songs & Ballads of the County Balatine, section 85:

     And the roaring of the linn.

   • 1896, Lewis Proudlock, The Borderland Muse, page 51:

     Hear! now, Yon linn's melodious thunder!

• lin, lyn, lynn

From Middle High German linde, from Old High German lind, lindi, from Proto-West Germanic *linþ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz. Compare German lind.

linn

1. (Erzgebirgisch) mild, gentle

Inherited from Proto-Finnic *litna. Compare Finnish linna.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlinː/

linn (genitive linna, partitive linna)

1. city (large settlement)
2. (archaeology) fortified settlement

• “linn”, in [PSV] Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastik [Dictionary of Estonian Basic Vocabulary] (in Estonian) (online version, not updated), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2014
• “linn”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• “linn”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
• linn in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

From Old Irish lind (“pool, lake; sea, ocean”), from Proto-Celtic *lindos (“lake, liquid”).

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /lʲiːnʲ/
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /l̠ʲiːn̠ʲ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /l̠ʲɪn̠ʲ/

linn f (genitive singular linne, nominative plural linnte)

1. pool, pond; body of water, lake, sea

From Old Irish linn (“period, space of time”).

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /lʲiːnʲ/
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /l̠ʲiːn̠ʲ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /l̠ʲɪn̠ʲ/

linn f (genitive singular linne)

1. space of time, period

• le linn (“during”)

• IPA^(key): /lʲɪn̠ʲ/

linn (emphatic linne)

1. first-person plural of le: with us, to us

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “linn”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 linn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “3 linn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 43

Uncertain. Possibly from Old Norse *linnr, from Proto-Germanic *linþaz. Related to linnorm.

• IPA^(key): /lɪnː/

linn (masculine and feminine lin, neuter lint, definite singular and plural linne, comparative linnare, indefinite superlative linnast, definite superlative linnaste)

1. weak

• svak

• “linn” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈl͈ʲin͈ʲ/

linn

1. first-person plural of la
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 14^c2a

     Gigeste-si Día linn ara·fulsam ar fochidi.

     You pl will pray to God for us so that we may endure our sufferings.

   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 207^b11

     Cit comṡuidigthi la Grécu ní écen dúnni beta comṡuidigthi linn.

     Although they are compounds in Greek (lit. “with the Greeks”), it is not necessary for us that they be compounds in our language (lit. “with us”).

From Old Irish linn (“period, space of time”).

• IPA^(key): /ʎiːɲ/

linn m or f (genitive singular linn or linne, plural linntean)

1. era, age, period

   Linn Ùr ― New Age

   Linn an Umha ― Bronze Age

2. century

   san 20mh linn ― in the 20th century

3. generation (genealogy)

   bho linn gu linn ― from generation to generation

4. offspring, clutch

• (generation): ginealach, glùn

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “linn”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “3 linn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language