Paternoster lakes are circular lakes formed in a series along a valley, also known as a glacial stairway. From above, paternoster lakes resemble rosary beads on a string. Paternoster is another word for “rosary,” deriving from the Latin pater noster, or “Our Father,” the two words that usually begin the rosary prayer. The term paternoster lakes is one of hundreds of terms about the natural world described in Homeground: A Guide to the American Landscape, edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Paternoster Lakes Are Glacial Stairways Resembling Rosary Beads”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. Grant, this week I put on my flippers and mask and took a deep dive into one of our favorite books.
The dictionary?
Close. It was Homeground, A Guide to the American Landscape.
Oh, what a lovely book.
Yes. You’ll recall that this is a book in which writers have gathered more than 800 terms that have to do with features of the landscape particular to various places. So these are words that are used in particular locales, but not necessarily something that you would find in a regular dictionary. And here’s a great example from that book that I brought up from my deep dive, Paternoster Lake.
So Paternoster is our father in Latin?
Yes, yes. So I don’t really know where to go from there.
Yeah, yeah. It’s sort of puzzling, right? But this isn’t an official name, this is a kind of lake, right?
Yeah. So not a proper noun.
Yeah, it’s a series of circular lakes along a valley.
Like you’re standing at one end of the valley.
Does it look like rosary beads?
Yes!
That’s exactly it.
That’s exactly it. As the book says, a Paternoster Lake is also known as a glacial stairway, the result of a mountain glacier pushing down a valley, scouring at various intervals a series of water basins connected by rapids and waterfalls. Scouring a series of water basins.
Yeah, yeah.
This is why we like this book.
It is.
Not just the language, but it’s well-defined and well-written.
Yes, yes.
And it’s about nature.
That’s right.
Yeah, the editors, Barry Lopez and Deborah Gortney, gathered a bunch of writers together to do these individual entries. And so they all took them very seriously and really poured a lot into it.
The book is Homeground, edited by Barry Lopez and Deborah Gortney. And I’ll share a couple of other examples later in the show.
Fantastic.
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