Wainfleet

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small village and civil parish on the Lincolnshire coast of eastern England ; a surname borne by a medieval bishop of Winchester who founded Magdalen College, Oxford
2. A coastal village in eastern England's Lincolnshire ; a name associated with a fifteenth-century bishop of Winchester and founder of an Oxford college
3. A settlement on the Lincolnshire coast in England ; a family name linked to a medieval churchman who established Magdalen College at Oxford

Etymology: Wainfleet is a place name, and its name is a compound of two Old English elements: "wæġn", meaning "wagon", and "flēot", meaning "small stream" or "inlet". Together they describe a spot where a wagon could cross or be driven along a shallow watercourse. The name is ultimately English in origin, so it carries no Latin or French layer, only the plain Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of the people who gave the place its name. The first element is the one that surprises most readers. It is the same word that gave modern English "wagon", so a village named for a vehicle is a reminder of how far back wheeled transport goes in the English landscape. The second element survives in many other English place names, where "fleet" marks a stream, creek or tidal channel.