Humberside

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A former county on the north bank of the Humber estuary in eastern England, now divided among other administrative areas
2. An old administrative county of northern England centred on the Humber estuary, abolished in the 1996 local government reorganisation
3. Historic English county lying along the north shore of the Humber, known for its ports and industry before its dissolution in 1996

Etymology: Humberside was the name of a county in northern England from 1974 to 1996, created when local government was reorganised and then abolished in the next round of changes. The name is simply a compound of "Humber", the great estuary on whose banks the county sat, and "side", meaning the land along or beside that water. The "side" element traces back through Middle English and Old English "sīde", which referred to the flank or edge of something, to a Proto-Germanic root meaning the side of the body. The result is a name that describes a place by its position rather than by a people or a feature, much like other English place names built on "side" such as "seaside" or "riverside". Here the Humber estuary supplied the first half, and the county took its identity from lying on its bank.