Newport

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A seaport and city in south-east Wales on the River Usk ; a coastal town in Rhode Island known for its sailing and historic mansions ; a city in northern Kentucky lying across the Ohio River from Cincinnati ; a town on the Isle of Wight in southern England
2. A port city on the River Usk in south-east Wales ; a Rhode Island town famed for its yachting and grand old houses ; a Kentucky city beside the Ohio River opposite Cincinnati ; a market town in the middle of the Isle of Wight
3. A Welsh seaport on the River Usk in the south-east of the country ; an American coastal city in Rhode Island with historic mansions and sailing ; a river city in Kentucky across from Cincinnati ; an English town on the Isle of Wight

Etymology: "Newport" is a plain compound: "new" plus "port," meaning a harbour or place where ships load and unload. The name was given to a place that was new as a port, a naming pattern that appears in many towns across the English-speaking world and in Europe, where settlements founded later were distinguished from older ones with the prefix "new." Because the word describes a settlement rather than a general idea, its meaning has stayed fixed: a town or city built around a harbour. The "port" element here carries its older sense of a gateway or harbour town, drawn from Latin "portus," which is also the source of "port" as a sea haven.