Bromley

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large borough in southeast London, England, that includes the town centre of Bromley and surrounding suburban areas
2. The name of a southeast London borough and its main town, located in the historic county of Kent
3. A suburban district and town in the south-eastern part of Greater London, administered as a London borough

Etymology: Bromley is a place name rather than a common word, and its history lies in the landscape it describes. It combines Old English "brōm", meaning broom (the yellow-flowered shrub), with "lēah", meaning wood or clearing. The name therefore means something like "woodland where broom grows," a description that would have fit many English settlements long before any town existed there. The same two elements also produced the surname Brimley, which is a doublet of the place name: two forms that developed from one source and came to be used separately. The surname and the borough share a root, though they have followed different paths, one as a family name and the other as the name of a district south-east of London.