Landmarked

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. A site is recognized for its historical or cultural significance when it possesses notable features or events associated with it
2. A position gains recognition through distinguished attributes that hold important historical or cultural relevance
3. A location is identified for its unique characteristics that carry significant historical or cultural importance

Etymology: "Landmarked" is the past tense and past participle of "landmark," so its story is really the story of the noun. The noun began in Old English as "landmearc," meaning "boundary," built from "land" and "mearc," a word for a marked line or border. Its earliest sense was thus a physical marker fixing where one property ended and another began, a stone or post set in the ground. Middle English kept that sense alive in forms like "londes-mark," still referring to boundaries. The shift from boundary stone to notable place happened gradually as people began to use the marker's visibility as a guide. A marker that could be seen from a distance helped travellers find their way, so the word came to mean any prominent object that served as a guide to the eye. Only later did it take on the sense of a building or site of special importance. Using it as a verb for officially designating a historic site is a modern development.