Foxrock

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A residential suburban village in south County Dublin, Ireland, known for its large houses and leafy streets
2. An affluent commuter area on the southern edge of Dublin city in the Republic of Ireland
3. A village in the southern suburbs of Dublin, Ireland, situated near the foothills of the Dublin Mountains

Etymology: Foxrock is a residential suburb in south County Dublin, and its name is plainly English in form: "fox" and "rock," the sort of compound that often describes a landmark. The English name most likely records an older Irish place name, which the English words were then used to render. The exact Irish form and what it originally referred to are uncertain, so any claim about a particular fox or a particular rock would go beyond the evidence. The name is one of many Irish places whose English versions reflect sound-based or translated renderings of Gaelic names. Place names of this kind often survive in English long after the local landmark has changed or disappeared, which leaves the compound looking more descriptive than it may originally have been.