Brigg

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A two-masted square-rigged sailing vessel once common in navies and trade ; a market town in North Lincolnshire, England on the River Ancholme
2. An old type of two-masted square-rigged sailing ship ; a small market town located in the North Lincolnshire district of eastern England
3. A square-rigged sailing vessel carrying two masts, used for coastal and naval work ; a historic settlement in North Lincolnshire, England

Etymology: "Brigg" is a Northern English and Scots word for a bridge, and it is a sibling of "bridge" that has kept an older shape. It descends from Middle English "brigge", which came from Old English "brycġ", the same root that gave modern English its standard word. The two forms split apart over centuries: in the north, the older vowel and consonant pattern survived, while the south moved on to "bridge". The word is also a doublet of "Bruges", the Belgian city, which is named after the same Old English-era word for a bridge. Its name refers to the bridges that crossed the waterways there, so a single ancient word for a span over water lives on both as a common noun in dialect and as a place name abroad.