Hartland

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A village and civil parish in north-west Devon, England, lying near the Atlantic coast and Hartland Point
2. A small rural settlement in Devon, England, situated on the rugged northwestern coast close to the sea
3. The name of a country village in north Devon, England, known for its dramatic cliffs and nearby headland

Etymology: Hartland is a place name, and its two parts are plain Old English. "Heorot" meant "hart," the male red deer, and "land" meant land, so the name is simply "hart land." The name belongs to a village in Devon, England, whose shape was the reason for the name. The village sits on a peninsula whose outline was taken to resemble a hart, so the land itself was named for the animal. The name also appears far from Devon. The town in New Brunswick, Canada, carries the same name, but its origin is different: it honours the surveyor James R. Hartley, who lived from 1833 to 1868. Two places with one spelling therefore have unrelated histories, one from a deer's silhouette on a map and the other from a man's name.