Great Lakes
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2.1
- proper noun
- /ɡreɪt leɪks/
:
Grandes Lagos
- Monstrous refuse heaps accumulate along the shores of the Great Lakes, above which seagulls swoop and cry.
- Great Lakes fish
- Great Lakes region
- upper Great Lakes
And in all reality, what are you as governor doing to protect our Great Lakes?
- And in all reality, what are you as governor doing to protect our Great Lakes?
- And we sit here just right after the Ignomius five year anniversary of when Flint switched water sources from the Great Lakes to the Flint River.
- They were probably Algonquin speakers, but they were connected like, you know, just above the, the Great Lakes.
- in an ocean or the waves on Lake MI, the Great Lakes here in the United States, which is where I grew up on Lake MI, The waves that come and they go, right?
Examples
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The fourth study concerned Great Lakes issues in Canada and the United States.
Academic text (1995) -
The Great Lakes include Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
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How many Great Lakes are there in the United States and what are they?
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I can see the Great Lakes!
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Lake Michigan is the second largest of the Great Lakes.
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Consumption of Great Lakes fish is of particular concern for several population groups.
Academic text (2012) -
So a substantial amount of US food aid has to go through Great Lakes ports.
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The popularity of the sport continued in the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest.
Academic text (2013) -
Rainwater contributes substantially to agriculture for countries in the Great Lakes region.
Academic text (2008) -
The Great Lakes have become the fourth seacoast for the United States, with Rochester as the focal point.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'great' (large/significant) + 'lakes' (inland bodies of fresh water), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to large lakes or a group of important lakes. Although identifying the specific five North American lakes requires world knowledge, the basic referential meaning is transparent and cross-linguistically easily mapped.
Etymology
Great Lakes comes from what early explorers saw: a chain of very large, connected lakes, so they used the words Great and Lakes to describe them. One popular story says French explorers called them 'les grands lacs' or 'the big lakes', and that name stayed for the five huge freshwater lakes we mean today.