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Glite Dictionary
cairn (Cairn Terrier)

cairn (Cairn Terrier)

8.0
A small dog with rough fur from Scotland that is lively and alert
  • noun
  • /kɛrn/
translation icon : cairn terrier
  • The cairn is known for its spirited personality and rough coat.

Examples

  • Many families choose a cairn as a pet due to its friendly temperament.

  • My cairn (Cairn Terrier) loves to chase squirrels.

  • At the dog show, the cairn impressed the judges with its agility and charm.

  • The cairn (Cairn Terrier) is very intelligent.

  • At the dog show, the cairn impressed the judges with its agility and charm.

  • Many families choose a cairn as a pet due to its friendly temperament.

  • The cairn is known for its spirited personality and rough coat.

Synonyms

cairn terrier
vscairn (Cairn Terrier)
1 6.9

A small dog with rough fur from Scotland that is lively and brave

is the same breed but the name uses parentheses and capitalization as a variant

Surface Forms

cairn (Cairn Terrier) singular
cairn terriers plural

Morphology

cairn + (Cairn + Terrier)

Knowing 'cairn' (a pile of stones) and 'terrier' (a type of dog) allows a B1 learner to infer this is a terrier associated with cairns or a place-name origin, so they would likely guess it denotes a kind of dog. However, the specific breed sense and its characteristic features (rough-haired, Scottish origin) require cultural or lexical knowledge beyond simple composition, so the relation is only partly predictable.

Etymology

Cairn (Cairn Terrier) comes from the word cairn, which meant a 'pile of stones' on Scottish hills. These small terriers hunted animals that hid in the stone piles, so the name came to mean the little rough-haired dog from Scotland.