Stranraer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A port and market town in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland, lying on the shore of Loch Ryan
2. A coastal town in the Scottish region of Dumfries and Galloway, situated beside Loch Ryan on the southwest of Scotland
3. The Scottish seaport in Dumfries and Galloway that sits on the northern shore of Loch Ryan in the southwest of the country

Etymology: Stranraer is a town on the western shore of Loch Ryan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, and its name comes from Scottish Gaelic "Sròn Reamhar", which literally means "fat promontory". The name describes the landform itself: a broad, blunt headland jutting into the water, the sort of feature a Gaelic speaker would naturally name by its shape rather than by any settlement or person. The Gaelic phrase was adopted into the local language and gradually reshaped into the form the town bears today. Note that the Gaelic adjective "reamhar" means "fat" or "thick" in the physical sense, so the description is about bulk and breadth, not anything about the people who lived there. The place name has stayed in use for centuries, long outlasting the Gaelic that gave it birth in the region.