Irvine

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A city located in Orange County, California, known for its planned community design, educational institutions, and business centers
2. A suburban area in Southern California distinguished by its residential neighborhoods, large parks, and presence of major universities
3. An urban region in the western United States characterized by technology industries, diverse population, and well-maintained public spaces

Etymology: Irvine is one of the few English-speaking places whose name is a river name in disguise. The Scottish town of Irvine, on the Firth of Clyde, and the Californian city share a root that scholars trace to Celtic words cognate with the Welsh "ir" or "yr", meaning green or fresh, and "afon", meaning water. The name therefore most plausibly means something like "green water" or "fresh river," though the exact sense is not certain. The Scottish place-name came first, borrowed as a surname and later as a town name, and it is that Scottish form the American city carries. The name's origin is probably older than any of its uses, which is typical of river names: rivers tend to keep their names long after the people who first called them so have gone, and settlements later take their identity from the water beside them.