Galwegian

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A native or inhabitant of Galway, the city or county on the west coast of Ireland, or a person descended from its people
2. Someone who comes from County Galway in the west of Ireland, the region known for its Gaelic culture and coastline
3. A resident of Galway in western Ireland, a term also applied to people with ancestry from that part of the country

Etymology: Galwegian is a formation from place names: it combines "Galloway" or "Galway" with the suffix "-ian", the same ending found in words such as "Victorian" and "Ruritanian". The suffix means "pertaining to" or "a person from", so the word denotes someone from either region, depending on which place is meant. Galloway is a historic region in south-west Scotland, while Galway is a county and city on Ireland's west coast, and the word can refer to people or things associated with either. The word was modelled on "Norwegian", the existing name for an inhabitant of Norway. Its pattern, a place name plus "-ian", was thus borrowed from a familiar model rather than inherited from an older tradition, so the two regions' names were given a shared demonym by analogy. Because the two places are separated by the Irish Sea, the word can be ambiguous, and context usually settles which region is intended.