English
Leicestershire
Leicestershire comes from Old English Lægreċeastresċīr.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150Lægreċeastresċīr
- Englishearliest quotation 2024Leicestershire
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150Lægreċeastresċīr
- Englishearliest quotation 2024Leicestershire
Earliest quotation: 2024, Nicola Venning, Welcome to the Notswolds: “Rutland (and some of the bordering ‘Notswolds’ counties of…”
Equivalent to Leicester + -shire
Proto-Italic *kastrom ‘part, share of something’
…
Latin castra ‘camp’
Old English ċeaster ‘fortified settlement’
Old English Ligoraċeaster
Middle English Ledecestre
English Leicester
The story
The middle and last element are ceaster (‘town, city’) and scir (‘district’), common in placenames. The first element is probably from the former name of the river Soar, *Ligora, *Ligera, of Celtic/Brythonic origin, from Proto-Celtic *legyā (‘sediment’), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (‘to lie’), similar to the French river Loire.
Every English word from Old English Lægreċeastresċīr
Today it means
name An inland county of England bordered by Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Derbyshire.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English Lægreċeastresċīr / Leicestershire