English
Loamshire
From loam + shire.
Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- ‘to smear’
Proto-Germanic *laimaz ‘loam, mud, clay’
Proto-West Germanic *laim
Old English lām ‘clay, mud, mire, earth’
Middle English lom ‘Clay’
English loam
Proto-West Germanic *skīru ‘district; office’
Old English sċīr ‘shire; administrative region’
Middle English schire ‘region’
English shire
Today it means
name Used as an anonymous placeholder for the name of a British rural county.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Loamshire