Antrim

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A county occupying the northeast corner of Northern Ireland, known for its coastline and the Giant's Causeway ; a market town on the northwestern shore of Lough Neagh in that county
2. A large county in the northeast of Northern Ireland bordering the Atlantic coast ; a small town lying on the northern shore of Lough Neagh within that county
3. The northeastern county of Northern Ireland, famous for its basalt coast ; a town standing on the northwest edge of Lough Neagh inside that same county

Etymology: Antrim takes its name from the Irish "Aontroim," which translates roughly as "lone ridge." The name belongs to the county in what is now Northern Ireland, and it was carried over into English as the form we use today. The "ridge" element points to the landscape, while "aon" (lone or single) suggests a single prominent hill or ridge standing out from the surrounding land. Because the name describes a physical feature rather than a person or event, its history is mostly one of sound and spelling change as it passed from Irish into English. The Irish original is the source of every English form, so the most useful way to read the name is to keep its literal sense in mind: a single ridge that gave the area its identity.