Moffat

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small market town in the Dumfries and Galloway region of southern Scotland ; a family name borne by various people, notably the British television writer Steven Moffat
2. A burgh in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, set in the Annandale valley ; a surname shared by several people, including the screenwriter known for Doctor Who
3. A market town in south-west Scotland famous for its spa heritage ; a surname associated with the prominent British writer and producer Steven Moffat

Etymology: Moffat is a small market town in the Annandale valley of southern Scotland, and its name is a compound from Scottish Gaelic. The first element, "magh", means "field" or "plain", and the second, "fada", means "long". Put together, the name describes the long stretch of open ground the town sits on, a sensible label for a settlement in a broad valley. The word is a place name rather than a common English word, so its interest lies in the landscape it records. Gaelic once lay across much of southern Scotland before English and Scots spread northward, and many place names in the region still preserve descriptions of the land in that older tongue. Moffat is one of those survivals, its name still pointing to the terrain as it was described centuries ago.