Southport

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A seaside resort town in Merseyside, northwest England, on the Irish Sea coast ; a coastal town in Queensland, Australia, known for its beaches on the Gold Coast
2. A coastal place in northwest England on the Irish Sea ; a beachside town in southeast Queensland, Australia, part of the Gold Coast region
3. An English seaside town in the county of Merseyside facing the Irish Sea ; an Australian resort community on the Gold Coast in Queensland

Etymology: Southport is a town on the Lancashire coast of northwest England, and its name is as literal as a name can be: "south" plus "port," meaning a harbour or haven. Place names built this way are common along the English coast, where a settlement's position relative to a larger neighbour or a landmark was often the most useful thing to record. The word here is a compound, with no hidden story beneath it. The second element, "port," is the more telling one. It descends from Latin "portus," meaning harbour or haven, and in English it has long carried the sense of a place where ships can shelter and load, rather than the gateway meaning it has in words like "portcullis." That same root gave English "port" for wine, though that usage comes from the city of Oporto in Portugal, not from the harbour sense.