gateshead
/ˈɡeɪtsˌhɛd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.73 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A town in Tyne and Wear, in north-east England, found upon the southern bank of the Tyne (OS grid ref NZ2562).
name
A metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear formed in 1974, with its headquarters in the town.
name
A suburb of Newcastle in the City of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, named after the town in England.
Example Sentences
Etymology
From Middle English Gatesheved (c. 1190), from Old English *Gāteshēafod, from gāt (“goat”) + hēafod (“head”). First mentioned by Bede in Latin in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae (literally “at the goat's head”), meaning a headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats. Both Latin and English names may be calques of a Brythonic predecessor formed from Proto-Brythonic *gaβr, from Proto-Celtic *gabros (“goat”), and might have been the Romano-British fort of Gabrosentum.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Gatesheved, *Gāteshēafod