lake, water or mere

[dinsdale]

It is a common question how many lakes in the lake district? to which the answer is 1 - Bassenthwaite.  I'm wondering what is the difference between a lake, a mere, a water and a tarn?

Thanks in advance.

[jennymac]

mere - a small pond of standing water

lake - a body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land
tarn -  a mountain lake (especially one formed by glaciers)

water - the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean)

[dinsdale]

Was thinking more of the lake district lakes which dont seem to fit the true definitions.

The definiton of tarn fits them all, the mere's are rather large for a small pond of water, eg windermere, they all fit into lake but there is only Bassenthwaite named as such.  Many are called water eg Conniston Water, though all fit into this description.

I guess its just about who named them.

3 stars anyway and thanks for your help jennymac. 

[Alphil_72]

It's exactly about who named them, particularly with the large ones. Water is from Danish/Dutch "warter" or Norse "vatten", Mere is from Roman "mare" for sea and Lake is from French "lac". All of these are in common parlance as part of the English language and have been subsequently used for all sorts of bodies of water but there is no classification. A tarn is a common feature in glaciated landscape ass described by jen.

Anywhere that you can find a common set of names, it's probably the people who eventually settled there who were able to establish the names in their language. Lake district and dales were norse, plenty of dales, fells and fosses. (dal, fjell & foss).