Hamelin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historic town in northern Germany best known as the setting of the legend of the Pied Piper who lured away its children
2. A German town in Lower Saxony whose name is tied to the folk tale of a piper who led the local children out of the town
3. The German town of Hameln, famous in legend as the place where a mysterious piper drew away all its children with his music

Etymology: Hamelin is the German name of a town in Lower Saxony, and the English word takes its form directly from that place name. The town is best known through the legend of the Pied Piper, a figure who supposedly lured the town's rats away with his music and then led its children off after the town refused to pay him, and the name has stuck to the story ever since. Because the word is a proper noun borrowed whole from German, it carries no meaning of its own beyond the place. Its significance in English comes almost entirely from that tale, so the word functions as a shorthand for the Pied Piper's story rather than as a term with an independent sense.