Norton

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A commercial antivirus and cybersecurity software product that protects computers from malware and digital threats
2. A proprietary security suite designed to safeguard devices against viruses, malware, and other online dangers
3. A well-known antivirus program that provides protection against malicious software and internet-based security risks

Etymology: Norton is a place name before it is anything else. It combines Old English "norþ", meaning "north", with "tūn", a word for an enclosure or settlement that later grew into the modern "town". Put together, the name meant something like "north farmstead" or "north settlement", a description that would have distinguished one settlement from its neighbours by its position relative to some other place. Such names were common across England, because the element "tūn" was productive for centuries and attached itself to countless farms and villages. The surname and place name forms spread from there, and the same pattern produced many similar compounds. The name also travelled overseas. A parish in New Brunswick, Canada, took its name from Norton, Massachusetts, so the English settler-place-name tradition carried a single compound from an Old English description of direction across the Atlantic.