Crewe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A town in the English county of Cheshire that grew up as an important railway junction in the nineteenth century
2. A railway town in northwest England, located in Cheshire, that developed around a major rail interchange
3. An English town in Cheshire whose history is closely tied to the growth of the national railway network

Etymology: Crewe is a town in Cheshire, England, and its name is older than the railway that made it famous. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the place as "Creu", a name derived from Old Welsh "criu", meaning a weir or a crossing. That makes the name a relic of a time when Cheshire was far closer to Welsh-speaking territory, and the spot was valued for a river crossing or a fishing barrier. The modern meaning of the word is almost entirely the product of the nineteenth century. Its fame came when the Grand Junction Railway built a major junction there in the 1840s, turning a quiet village into a railway town with engineering workshops and a large workforce. The name is now more often recognised as a railway hub than as a river crossing, so the old Welsh sense survives only in the place's history.