Sudbury

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A city in central Ontario, Canada, known for its mining industry and located in the Greater Sudbury region ; a town in Massachusetts, USA, situated west of Boston in Middlesex County
2. A major mining center in Ontario, Canada, in the Canadian Shield ; a municipality in eastern Massachusetts, USA, in the Boston metropolitan area
3. An Ontario city in Canada famous for nickel production and the INCO mining operations ; a New England town in Massachusetts, USA, part of the Boston suburbs

Etymology: Sudbury is a place name rather than a common word, and its meaning is transparent once the parts are separated. It combines Old English "suþ", meaning "south", with "byriġ", the dative form of "burh", a word for a fortified place such as a fort or walled town. The result describes a settlement lying to the south of something, often a larger stronghold or centre. The same pattern produced several other English place names. Southborough, Southbury and Sudborough all share the same roots, so they are doublets: separate spellings that developed from one shared origin in different localities. Each records a community that once stood in relation to a fortified place to its south.