Sc. Forms: 4–6 locht, louch, (6 louche), 6– loch. [Gael. (and Irish) loch. Cf. the Anglo-Irish LOUGH. The word was adopted in ONorthumbrian as luh.] A lake; applied also to an arm of the sea, esp. when narrow or partially landlocked.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 430. In A nycht and In A day, Cummyn owt our the louch ar thai.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xx. (Blasius), 309. Þe tyrand þane gert bynd hym fast & in a depe locht hyme cast.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. vi. Bot suddanelie thay fell on sleuthfull sleip, Followand plesance drownit in this loch of cair.
a. 1586. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxvi. 84. Quhen that þe Quene wes in the Louche Inclusit.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 40. Amang the Lochis or bosumis of the Sey.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Crimes Pecuniall, 146. Na greene lint, suld be laid in lochs, or running burnes.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scotl. (1818), II. 102. Winding hollows between the feet of the mountains whereinto the sea flows … these the natives call lochs.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 13 Sept. an. 1773. Kingsburg conducted us in his boat across one of the lochs, as they call them, or arms of the sea.
1806. Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2), 22. Extensive arms of the sea which bear the name of lochs.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Forerunners, Wks. (Bohn), I. 447. On eastern hills I see their smokes, Mixed with mist by distant lochs.
1901. A. Lang, in Longm. Mag., May, 91. You may have heard friendly owls hooting to each other across a loch.
b. attrib. and Comb., as loch-fishing, -foot, -side, -trout; loch-leech local Sc., a leech; loch-maw, a species of mew (Jam.); loch-reed (see quot.).
1860. G. H. K., Vac. Tour, 165. I do not care much for *loch-fishing myself.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xlvi. 328. The lads … now lay quiet enough down in the copse-wood at the *loch-foot.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. i. 43. In this Case Blood is to be taken at the Arm, or with *Loch-Leeches.
1829. Hogg, Sheph. Calendar, I. 182. The gowk kens what the tittling wants, although it is not aye crying Give, give, like the horse loch-leech.
1673. Wedderburn, Vocab., 16 (Jam.). Larus, a *loch-maw.
1777. Lightfoot, Flora Scotica, II. 1131. Arundo phragmites. The *Loch-Reed.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 109. Ane narow place, Betuix a *louchside and a brae.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 46. Vpon the loch-syd of the Ness … is situat a verie … ancient hous.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, 224. The household at the farm by the lochsides.
1875. W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 21. The grey *loch-trout plays in the depths of the little inland seas.
