the.com/firth
Scotland's word for where a river gave up and became the sea.
means A narrow inlet or estuary where a river mouth opens into the sea, common in Scottish geography and place names.
from From Old Norse 'fjörðr' (the same root that gives English 'fjord'), carried into Scots and northern English during centuries of Norse settlement and trade around Britain's coasts. Scots kept 'firth' as its everyday form while 'fjord' came into English later, more directly from Norwegian — so the two words are siblings from the same Norse parent, not borrowings from each other.
- etymology
- from old norse fjorthr, cousin of fjord
- famous example
- firth of forth, said twice for fun
- geology
- often a glacier-carved estuary, not just a river mouth
- colin firth
- unrelated, but everyone asks anyway