Gatwick

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The large international airport located south of London in England, serving many flights across the world
2. An major air travel hub in southern England, situated a short distance outside the British capital
3. A busy airport in West Sussex, England, lying just south of London and handling many international flights

Etymology: Gatwick is the name of an English place, most famous today as the site of one of London's major airports, and its name is a plain compound from Old English. The first element is "gāt", meaning "goat", and the second is "wick", a term for a dwelling or farm, often one tied to a specific use. Gatwick therefore means something like "goat farm" or "goat settlement", a name that would have described the local landscape and its livestock long before any aeroplanes arrived. The name belongs to a common pattern in English place-naming, where "-wick" (from Latin "vicus", a settlement) marks an outlying farm or dairy that depended on a larger community. Many such names survive across England, and their meanings are usually this transparent, recording what the land was used for rather than any grand event.