Malton

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A market town in North Yorkshire in northern England, situated on the River Derwent
2. A small historic market settlement in the county of North Yorkshire in the north of England
3. An English town in North Yorkshire lying on the River Derwent in the northern part of England

Etymology: Malton is a place name, the name of a market town in North Yorkshire, England. Its roots lie in Old English, where "mæþel" meant "speech" and "tūn" meant "enclosure" or "settlement". Put together, the name probably described a settlement where a public assembly met to talk over local affairs, so the town's name records a gathering place rather than a feature of the land. The second element is the more familiar one. "Tūn" survives in modern English as "town", and it originally meant a fenced or enclosed piece of ground, such as a farmyard, before it came to mean a settled community. Many English place names end in the same element, so "Malton" follows a common pattern for places that grew up around a fenced or organised site.