Newark

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The principal urban center of Essex County in New Jersey ; an important city in Licking County, Ohio, with a rich industrial past
2. A major city in Essex County, New Jersey, situated in the northeastern part of the state near New York City ; a city located in Licking County, Ohio, known for its manufacturing heritage
3. The largest city in Essex County, New Jersey, positioned across the Hudson River from Manhattan ; an industrial city in central Ohio with historical significance in the Great Lakes region

Etymology: Newark is a place name rather than a common word, and its name is a compound of two Old English elements: "nīewe", meaning "new", and "weorc", meaning "work". In this case "work" most likely refers to a building, a sense that fits a fortified or constructed site rather than a piece of labour in the abstract. The name is "Newerche" in the Domesday Book of 1086, so it was already in use by the late eleventh century. The compound is the source of the town's name in several places. Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire is the best-known English example, and the same element appears in other towns that were given a "new work" as their name. The sense of the name, then, is simply a newly built structure, a plain description that was later attached to a settlement.