lakes

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English lak(e), lac(e), apparently a conflation of Old French lac, its source, Latin lacus (compare Greek lákkos, Old Irish loch, Old English, Old Saxon lagu sea, water) and Old English lacu stream, water course (compare leccan to moisten, modern dial. lake stream, channel; see leach¹)

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

any of various pigments prepared from animal, vegetable, or coal-tar coloring matters by chemical or other union with metallic compounds.

a red pigment prepared from lac or cochineal by combination with a metallic compound.

Origin:
1610–20; variant of lac¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To Lakes

Collins

World English Dictionary

lake¹ (leɪk)

—n
1.	an expanse of water entirely surrounded by land and unconnected to the sea except by rivers or streamsRelated: lacustrine
2.	anything resembling this
3.	a surplus of a liquid commodity: a wine lake

Related: lacustrine

[C13: lac, via Old French from Latin lacus basin]

lake² (leɪk)

—n
1.	See also mordant a bright pigment used in textile dyeing and printing inks, produced by the combination of an organic colouring matter with an inorganic compound, usually a metallic salt, oxide, or hydroxide
2.	a red dye obtained by combining a metallic compound with cochineal

[C17: variant of lac¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

lake

"body of water," c.1200, from O.Fr. lack, from L. lacus "pond, lake," also "basin, tank," related to lacuna "hole, pit," from PIE *lak- (cf. Gk. lakkos "pit, tank, pond," O.C.S. loky "pool, puddle, cistern," O.Ir. loch "lake, pond"). The common notion is "basin." There was a Gmc. form of the word, which

yielded cognate O.N. lögr "sea flood, water," O.E. lacu "stream," lagu "sea flood, water," leccan "to moisten" (see leak). The N.Amer. Great Lakes so called from 1660s. Laker "boat made for sailing on the Great Lakes" is from 1887.

lake

"deep red coloring matter," 1616, from Fr. laque (see lac), from which it was obtained.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

lake ¹ (lāk)
n.
A small collection of fluid.

lake ²
n.
A pigment consisting of organic coloring matter with an inorganic, usually metallic base or carrier, used in dyes, inks, and paints. v. laked, lak·ing, lakes
To cause blood plasma to become red as a result of the release of hemoglobin from the red blood cells.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

lake

(lāk) Pronunciation Key
A large inland body of standing fresh or salt water. Lakes generally form in depressions, such as those created by glacial or volcanic action; they may also form when a section of a river becomes dammed or when a channel is isolated by a change in a river's course.

Example sentences from the web

The tundra is covered in marshes, lakes, bogs and streams during the warm

months.

The range of this bird has been expanding east in the great lakes region.

There are only a few sites in the world where permanent lakes of lava exist.

In the hollows of the plains are ponds or lakes of brackish and fresh water.

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Finger Lakes Kawartha Lakes Killarney Klamath Lakes Ontario Rangeley Lakes

Matching Quote

"When one is very young, to read is as it were to pour a continuous stream of water on a parched and virginal plain. The soil seems to have an endless capacity to drink up the stream, sometimes with prolonged perpetual rapture, sometimes with impartial calm indifference.... But when one is no longer young, to read is a very different matter. The parched plain has become a luxuriant forest with lakes and streams in the midst of it. Every image which enters it evokes ancient visions from the depth of its waters, and every tone rustles among the trees with a music so rich in haunting memories that one grows faint beneath their burden."

-Havelock Ellis