durham
/ˈdɝəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.78 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A county in the Northeast of England; in full, County Durham.
name
A city, the county town of County Durham, England.
name
A unitary authority of County Durham, which replaced the county council in 2009 in all of County Durham except Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees; in full, Durham County Council.
name
An English habitational surname from Old English from the city in England.
name
An outback town in Queensland, Australia.
Etymology
From Old English Dūnholm, which is from dun (“hill”) + Old Norse holm (“islet, island”). In order to get from Dunholm to Durham, two major processes had to take place. Firstly, the n at the coda of the first syllable, dun, underwent dissimilation. Specifically, by influence of the m in the coda of the following syllable (holm), said n denasalised and lenited to the oral r, thus dur. Secondly, after a weakening of the vowel quality in the more weakly-stressed syllable holm, this ending was misanalysed as the similar-sounding toponymic suffix, -ham, meaning home or farm. Doublet of Duresm and Dunelm.
Origin
- Source language: Old English
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɝəm/
- British English: /ˈdʌ.ɹəm/