Middlesex

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historic county in southeast England, formerly lying north and south of the River Thames and now mostly absorbed into Greater London
2. A former English shire situated between the Thames and areas to its north, historically spanning both banks of the river
3. An historical English county located in the southeast, once straddling the Thames between Essex and Surrey before modern boundary changes

Etymology: The name is a compound of two Old English words: "middel", meaning "middle", and "Seaxe", the Saxons, the Germanic people who settled much of southern Britain. So "Middlesex" simply means "the land of the Middle Saxons," a label that set this territory apart from the other Saxon groups around it, such as the West Saxons and the East Saxons. The name worked on two levels from the start. It described the land and also the people who lived there, so the same Old English word, Middelseaxan, could refer to a place or to its inhabitants. Over the centuries the spelling and pronunciation wore down into the form we now know, but the "Saxon" element stayed hidden inside it, which is why the name often surprises people who expect a plain description of geography.