Georgetown

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The national capital of Guyana on the Atlantic coast of South America ; a private Jesuit university located in Washington, D.C. ; a historic UNESCO-listed district on the island of Penang in Malaysia ; a city in Texas known for its suburban growth near Austin
2. A coastal South American capital serving as Guyana's seat of government ; an academic institution in the nation's capital famed for its Jesuit heritage ; a heritage quarter on the Malaysian island of Penang ; a Texan city located north of Austin
3. Guyana's principal Atlantic port and administrative center ; a Washington, D.C. university founded by Jesuits ; a colonial-era neighborhood on Penang island in Malaysia ; a Texas town in the Austin metropolitan area

Etymology: "Georgetown" is a compound of "George" and "town," and the name it carries is a royal one. Both halves are plain English: "George" traces to a Greek name meaning "farmer" or "earthworker," and "town" is an old Germanic word for an enclosure that grew into a settlement. What the combination records is a loyalty expressed in place names. Two of the best-known places bearing it, Georgetown in Guyana and Georgetown in Penang, Malaysia, were named after King George III of the United Kingdom, so the word is a monument to a king rather than a description of a landscape. Those place names show how the pattern worked. The same naming habit produced many other towns bearing the king's name across the British Empire, so a reader meeting "Georgetown" on a map is usually looking at a royal tribute rather than a reference to any particular local feature.