Coeur d'Alene Lake

6.3

A large lake in northern Idaho known for its beauty and for boating and fishing

proper noun
/kɔr dɑˈleɪn leɪk/

: lago Coeur d'Alene

Many tourists visit Coeur d'Alene Lake each summer for boating and fishing.

Examples

The sunrise over Coeur d'Alene Lake is truly breathtaking.
Scientists have been studying the water quality of Coeur d'Alene Lake for several years.
I love visiting Coeur d'Alene Lake every summer.
Have you ever been to Coeur d'Alene Lake?
Many tourists visit Coeur d'Alene Lake each summer for boating and fishing.
The sunrise over Coeur d'Alene Lake is truly breathtaking.
Scientists have been studying the water quality of Coeur d'Alene Lake for several years.

Surface Forms

Coeur d'Alene Lake main

Morphology

Coeur + d'Alene + lake

The headword 'lake' clearly signals that this is the name of a body of water, so a learner who knows 'lake' will understand the referent is a lake. However, the preceding elements are a foreign proper name (French-origin words) and do not yield additional semantic information to a typical B1 learner, so the full name is not compositionally interpretable. This yields partial (but not full) transparency.

Etymology

Coeur d'Alene Lake comes from a French phrase meaning 'heart of an awl', where the words heart and awl create a sharp, pointed picture. French fur traders used that name for the local people because they were seen as clever, tough traders, and the lake kept their name, so today the name reminds us of those people and their trading skill.