Southwell

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A small historic market town in Nottinghamshire, England, home to a minster church ; a family name borne by various people, including the Elizabethan poet Robert Southwell
2. A quiet English town in the county of Nottinghamshire, noted for its ancient minster ; a surname carried by a number of notable people across several centuries
3. An old market settlement in the English county of Nottinghamshire with a historic minster ; a hereditary family name, famously held by the Elizabethan writer Robert Southwell

Etymology: Southwell is a town in Nottinghamshire, England, and its name is almost literal: it means "south well," a spring or well lying to the south of something. The Old English "Sūþwelle" combined "sūþ," meaning south, with "welle," meaning well or spring. The town's name is a place-name rather than a common word, so its history is simply a description of where a water source once lay. The second element traces back much further. "Welle" descends from a Proto-Germanic word that was closely tied to the idea of welling up or bubbling forth, the same notion that gives English the verb "well" in the sense of water rising from the ground. The first element, "sūþ," is the ancient word for the southern direction, and it has survived in English almost unchanged for more than a thousand years.