Dorceceaster

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The Old English name for the ancient settlement now called Dorchester, a town in Oxfordshire, England
2. A historical Anglo-Saxon place name for the settlement later known as Dorchester on Thames in Oxfordshire
3. The medieval Old English form of the name used for what is today the Oxfordshire town of Dorchester

Etymology: The second half of this name is the surprising part. "-ceaster" is the Old English "ceaster," a borrowing of Latin "castra," meaning "military camp" or "fortress." Anglo-Saxon settlers gave the word to the old Roman sites they found in Britain, so the same element turns up in Chester, Winchester, and Dorchester. A town name ending in "-ceaster" usually marks a place that had been a Roman fort or walled town. The first part, "Dorc-," is less certain. It is generally linked to the name of an old British or Roman-period settlement, likely of Celtic origin, though its exact meaning is not firmly established. Written forms of the name appear in early English sources, and it is the Old English name of a place in what is now Oxfordshire. The name shows how English settlers kept a native place name and added their own word for the Roman stronghold.