Dunmore

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A borough in Lackawanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania ; a Scottish and Irish family name borne by various notable people
2. A small borough located in Lackawanna County, northeastern Pennsylvania ; a surname of Scottish or Irish origin shared by several historical figures
3. A community in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania's Lackawanna County ; a family surname of Gaelic origin carried by various people throughout history

Etymology: "Dunmore" is an anglicized form of Irish and Scottish Gaelic "dùn," meaning "fortress," "fort," or "stronghold," joined to "mòr," meaning "big," "large," or "great." The name therefore describes a great fort, and it is the kind of place-name element that appears across the Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland, where a hill or site crowned by a defensive enclosure gave a settlement its name. Because the word was anglicized, its spelling reflects English conventions rather than the Gaelic original. The "dùn" element is found in many other place names, and it is the same root that gives the Gaelic word its general sense of a fortified site. Readers who know English compounds such as "fortress-great" will recognize the logic at once, though the name is a fixed geographic label rather than a common descriptive phrase.