Omagh

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A market town in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, situated on the River Strule near the border with the Republic of Ireland
2. A small town in the west of Northern Ireland, located in County Tyrone and known for its place in the region's recent history
3. A settlement in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, lying along the River Strule close to the county's border with Ireland

Etymology: Omagh is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and its name comes from Irish "An Ómaigh", usually translated as "The Sacred Plain" or "The Virgin Plain". The first element, "ómaigh", is a form of "óg", "young" or "virgin", which gives the name its second, more poetic reading. The plain was the land around the place, and the name described that landscape before it described a settlement. Because the name is a plain descriptive phrase in Irish, English speakers have tended to take it as a plain noun, and the town's name has been written in several forms over the centuries. The version now used in English is the Irish name, with its article "An" dropped, so the surviving word is essentially the open ground itself.