Watling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An ancient Roman road in England running from London northwest toward Wroxeter ; a family name of English origin carried by people across the country
2. A famous Roman highway across England linking London with the northwest ; a surname found among English families
3. The old Roman route through England that ran from the capital toward the west ; a common English family name passed down through generations

Etymology: "Watling" is a surprisingly old name for a road, and its origin lies in a word for a people. The Old English "Wæcelinga" was the name given to a road, and it is traced to "wæcla", a term possibly related to the Proto-Germanic "walhiskaz", meaning "Celt" and later "Roman". The Anglo-Saxons who settled Britain used such words for the Romano-British and Celtic-speaking peoples they encountered, so a name that once pointed to a foreign population came to label a piece of infrastructure. The road in question is Watling Street, one of the great routes of Roman Britain. Its name survived long after the Romans left, and the Anglo-Saxons evidently associated the road with the people who had built and used it. The exact connection between "wæcla" and the older Germanic word remains uncertain, so the link is best read as a plausible sequence rather than a settled fact.