Sark

Unknown, but see Wikipedia. Richard Coates has suggested derivation from a Proto-Semitic cognate of Arabic شرق (“east, Orient”) , although this is considered unlikely.

The river-name is probably derived from Proto-Brythonic *serch, of uncertain meaning and etymology but associated with "circularity".

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɑːk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) enPR: särk, IPA^(key): /sɑɹk/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k

Sark

1. One of the Channel Islands; notable inter alia for its local government containing one of the last vestiges of feudalism in Europe.
2. A minor river in Dumfries and Galloway council area and Cumbria, forming part of the border between Scotland and England, which flows into the tidal Esk at Gretna; in full, the River Sark.
   • 1953 August, Basil M. Bazley, “Carlisle in 1905”, in Railway Magazine, page 507:

     I have often been amused by travellers pointing out, first the Eden, just north of the station, and then the Esk, which young Lochinvar swam, as the Border; the real boundary is, of course, the little river Sark, just south of the Caledonian station at Gretna; […] .

• Sercquiais

• AKRs, Kars, arks, kars, ksar, skar