Cawdor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A former Scottish noble title held by a thane, borne by a figure in Shakespeare's Macbeth ; a northeastern Scottish village known for its medieval castle
2. The rank of a Scottish thane, made famous by Shakespeare's Macbeth ; a small village in northeast Scotland named for its historic castle
3. A hereditary Scottish lordship once held by thanes ; a settlement in northeastern Scotland that gives its name to a famous fortress

Etymology: Cawdor is almost certainly a place name first. In Scotland, the name of the Cawdor estate and castle near Nairn belongs to a Pictish river-name, and the scholar W. J. Watson, writing in 1926, traced it to elements that correspond to Welsh "caled" meaning "hard" and "dwr" meaning "water." The river name seems to have been applied to the stream on which the castle stood, so the name describes the water itself rather than any person or event. The word reached wider English use because of Shakespeare. In "Macbeth," the title "Thane of Cawdor" is held first by a traitor whose execution Macbeth witnesses, and then passed to Macbeth himself, so the name became attached to one of the play's central turning points. The castle's later association with that story is a literary echo, not a documented historical fact about the Cawdor family.