Chestreschire

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old spelling of Cheshire, the historic county in northwest England that is also known as Chester
2. A medieval and early modern form of the name of Cheshire, the county in northwest England centered on the city of Chester
3. An archaic variant spelling for the English county of Cheshire, located in the northwest of the country near Wales

Etymology: In Middle English this was a spelling of "Cheshire," the county in north-west England, and its meaning is written into its parts. The first element comes from Old English "ceaster," a borrowing of Latin "castra," the plural of "castrum," meaning a fortified military camp. The Romans built such a camp at the site of the city now called Chester, and the Anglo-Saxons adopted the name for the settlement. The second element, "shire," comes from Old English "scīr," which meant a division of administrative territory, so the whole name means roughly "the district of the camp-town." The Latin root also survives in many English place names. "Castra" is the source of the "-chester" and "-caster" endings in towns such as Manchester, Lancaster, and Winchester, all of which once sat on Roman forts. The county name followed the same pattern, taking its identity from the old military settlement at its centre.