Kirkliston

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A village and civil parish in West Lothian, Scotland, located to the west of Edinburgh near the River Almond
2. A small settlement in the Scottish council area of West Lothian, situated not far from the city of Edinburgh
3. A Scottish village and parish lying in West Lothian, to the west of the Scottish capital Edinburgh

Etymology: Kirkliston is a village in West Lothian, Scotland, a few miles west of Edinburgh and close to Edinburgh Airport. Its first element, "kirk," is the Scots word for church, borrowed from Old Norse "kirkja," which in turn came from Greek "kyriakon" ("the Lord's house"). Many Scottish place names with "kirk" mark a parish church, so the name tells you that a church stood at the settlement, probably as the centre of its parish. The second element, "Liston," is harder to pin down. Scottish place names often mix Gaelic, Brittonic (the language spoken in southern Scotland before English took hold), Old English and Norse, and scholars have proposed several sources for "Liston." The exact origin remains uncertain, so the safest summary is that the name combines a church word with an older place name whose meaning has not been settled.