cromlech

[prettygoodword]

cromlech (KROM-lek) - n., a dolmen in Wales, either a) a table-stone tomb or b) a group of megaliths, sometimes arranged in a circle or in concentric circles.


As a word for a circle of megaliths, it has been applied more broadly than Wales in other languages, but generally in English it is very region-specific. This one in Gwynedd County, Wales, fits all languages:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

The word's from Welsh, not surprisingly, from crom, feminine of crwm, arched + llech, (flat) stone -- so an arch made with a flat stone, as shown in dolmen.

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Okay; I’m well aware that any relation grammatical gender in language bears to the gender (or sex) (if either apply at all) of the referent is a crapshoot, but what distinguishes a crom from a crwm—is it a matter of the gender of the speaker?

[prettygoodword]

I've no firsthand knowledge of Welsh, but in every Indo-European language I've studied, including Irish, the gender inflection of an adjective must agree with the gender of the noun (either present or implied) it modifies. (Yes, that holds true in English, if only because there's only one gender inflection.)