Carlyle

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist and historian of the nineteenth century ; Carlyle is a small town in Ontario, Canada ; Carlyle is also a small city in southern Illinois, United States
2. A Victorian Scottish man of letters known for works on heroes and history ; a community in the Canadian province of Ontario ; a town in the American state of Illinois
3. The name of a nineteenth-century Scottish author and critic ; a Canadian town located in Ontario province ; a small Illinois municipality in the central United States

Etymology: "Carlyle" is a surname, and as a proper noun its history is tied to a place and a family rather than to a word-forming process. The name derives from the Cumbrian town of Carlisle in northwest England, whose name in turn goes back to Brittonic roots meaning something like "fort of the Britons" or "stone fort" combined with an Old English or Old Norse element; the exact breakdown is debated, so it is best treated with caution. The name became famous through Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), the Scottish historian, essayist and critic. He was born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, and his family name, spelled this way, came to be widely known through his work, including "The French Revolution" (1837) and "On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History" (1841). Carlyle's name has also been adopted as a given name, most often in English-speaking countries, where it is considered a variant of Carlisle-derived forms.