Malpas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A narrow, dangerous or difficult passage through hills or mountains ; a village in Cheshire, England, that takes its name from such a passage
2. An archaic term for a treacherous defile between high ground ; the name of a small English village in the county of Cheshire
3. A hazardous narrow route over rough terrain ; a place name referring to a village in north-west England

Etymology: Malpas is a place-name word that English borrowed from Old French, where "mal" meant "bad" and "pas" meant "passage" or "narrow pass." Put together, it describes a route that is hard to get through: a steep defile, a narrow gorge, or a stretch of ground that slows every traveller down. Medieval travellers in the hills relied on this kind of blunt, practical naming, and the word kept that plainness. The word survives most visibly on the map. Malpas is a village in Cheshire, England, on the border with Wales, and its name records the rough ground that once lay across the route into the region. The same elements, "mal" and "pas," appear in other French-derived place names, which shows how readily travellers' warnings became fixed names for particular spots.