Ruislip

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A residential suburb in the London Borough of Hillingdon, lying in the northwest of the capital and known for its leafy streets and commuter rail links
2. A district on the northwestern edge of Greater London, part of the Hillingdon borough and largely made up of suburban housing
3. An area of northwest London within the borough of Hillingdon, characterised by suburban homes and its connection to the Metropolitan line

Etymology: Ruislip is a place name in north-west London, and its name is older than most of the houses around it. It comes from Old English "rysċ", meaning "rush" (the marsh plant), combined with "hlȳp", meaning "leap". The name is best understood as describing a place where rushes grew and something, probably a stream or a boggy patch, was leapt across. Ruislip is recorded in documents as an Anglo-Saxon settlement, so the name took shape long before London grew out to meet it. The "leap" element is the part that surprises most readers. In Old English, "hlȳp" was a plain word for a jump, and it appears in many place names where a boundary or watercourse could be crossed in a single stride. The rushes tell us about the terrain, while the leap tells us what people did there, which makes the name a small snapshot of how the first settlers moved through their landscape.