Richmond

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. The capital city of Virginia in the United States, on the James River ; a district in southwest London beside the Thames ; a market town in North Yorkshire, England
2. A state capital on the James River in Virginia, USA ; an affluent borough of southwest London along the Thames ; a historic market town in North Yorkshire, England
3. The Virginian city that serves as the state capital ; a riverside area of southwest London on the Thames ; a northern English market town in the county of North Yorkshire

Etymology: Richmond, the capital of Virginia, is named after a town in Normandy, and the English place-name it draws on was itself a Norman import. The Middle English form "Rychemund" was cognate with the French "Richemont," a town in Normandy whose name is built from "rich" and "mound," so the word literally describes a rich hill. The same pattern produced many English place-names across the Anglo-Norman world, where an elevated site gave a settlement its identity. The American Richmond follows that older English usage. Its name was borrowed to honour the English town of Richmond in Surrey, which had itself taken its name from the Normandy original, so one Norman hilltop name travelled through England and across the Atlantic. That English Richmond is the source of the Virginia capital's name, not the French town directly. The word has since become a common surname and a name for many other places, from Richmond in London to Richmond in Yorkshire. Each carries the same underlying idea of a prominent, well-positioned rise of ground.