Burn (landform)  In local usage, a burn is a kind of watercourse. The term applies to a large stream or a small river. It's used in Scotland and England (especially North East England) and in parts of Ulster, Australia and New Zealand. The cognate of "burn" in standard English is "bourn", "bourne", "borne", "born", which is retained in placenames like "Bournemouth", "King's Somborne", "Holborn", "Melbourne". A cognate in German is "Born" (contemp. "Brunnen"), meaning "well", "spring" or "source", which is retained in placenames like "Paderborn" in Germany. Both the English and German words derive from the same Proto-Germanic root. Scots Gaelic has the word "bùrn", also cognate, but which means "fresh water"; the actual Gaelic for a "burn" is "allt" (sometimes anglicised as "ault" or "auld" in placenames.)