Uxbridge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, located in the west of the English capital
2. A market town on the western edge of Greater London, known for its history and transport links
3. A settlement in the west of Greater London within the borough of Hillingdon in England

Etymology: Uxbridge is a town in west London, and its name is a compound of two Old English elements. The first part is a reference to the Wixan, a Saxon people who settled near the Lincolnshire fens, and the second is "brycg", the Old English word for "bridge". The name therefore means something like "the bridge leading to the Wixan", a place-name built the way many English settlement names were, by pairing a people or landmark with a term for a crossing. The town's name has been used to describe a people as well as a place. The Wixan themselves are known mainly from such names, so the bridge that gave the town its identity is attested in the place name rather than in any surviving record of the tribe's own story. The Lincolnshire connection is the source's point of origin, and the town's name travelled with its settlers far from the fens.