Lockerbie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small market town in the Dumfries and Galloway region of southern Scotland, near the English border
2. A settlement in the Dumfries and Galloway area of southern Scotland known for its historic market
3. A town located in southwestern Scotland within the Dumfries and Galloway council area

Etymology: Lockerbie is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland, and its name is a place-name formed from a personal name and an Old Norse element. The first part comes from the personal name Lockard, while the second, "byr", is the Old Norse word for "farm" or settlement, the same element that appears in many place-names across Scotland and northern England. So the name meant roughly "Lockard's farm." For most readers today, though, the word means something quite different. The town's name became a term for the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing everyone aboard and eleven residents on the ground. In this sense, the word works as a shorthand for that attack, much as "Hiroshima" or "Chernobyl" came to stand for events rather than places.