Lothians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The historical lowland area of southeast Scotland that includes Edinburgh, referred to in its collective plural form
2. Several regions or districts known as Lothian in the southeast of Scotland, taken together as a group
3. The lowland counties of southeastern Scotland, once known as Lothian, which lie along the Firth of Forth

Etymology: "Lothians" is the plural of "Lothian," the name of a region in southeast Scotland that includes Edinburgh. The name first appears in Old English as "Loðene" or "Loþene," the form used for the lands that the Anglo-Saxons encountered north of the Tweed. Its deeper origin is disputed. One proposal links it to a Proto-Brythonic form, "Lugudūniānā," which would make the name a relative of "Lugdunum," the Latin name of Lyon, and perhaps built on a Celtic personal name. Another traces it to a Proto-Celtic root "lutā." The Scottish place-name scholar A. D. Mills, in his dictionary of British place names, prefers to connect the name to a figure called "one Leudonus," a person whose name is otherwise unrecorded. Mills's suggestion gives the name a human origin, though it rests on a single name that survives in no other source. The plural form "Lothians" is used in its own right, most often for the two-part administrative and historical areas of the region, such as East Lothian and Midlothian, which are each named after the older territory.