Plympton

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small town in the county of Devon in southwest England ; a family name of English origin carried by people of various backgrounds
2. A market town located in Devon in the southwest of England ; a surname borne by a number of notable English families
3. A village in southwestern England in the county of Devon ; a last name found mainly among English-speaking people

Etymology: Plympton is a place name, and its history is written in its landscape. The Old English form "Plȳmentūn" (recorded around 900) combined "plūme", meaning plum tree, with "tūn", meaning enclosure or settlement, and the adjective "*plymen", meaning growing with plum trees. The name thus describes a farmstead surrounded by plum orchards, the kind of practical description that English place names often give. Over the centuries the name passed into Middle English, where the spelling and pronunciation shifted with local speech. The name is a doublet of Plumpton, another English place name that developed from the same Old English root, so the two names are related versions of one original description, separated by regional differences in how the name was spoken and written.