Wolverhampton

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large industrial city in the West Midlands region of central England, known for its manufacturing history and football club
2. An urban center in the West Midlands of England with a long industrial heritage and a population of several hundred thousand
3. A town in central England's West Midlands area, noted for engineering, motor industry roots and its well-known football team

Etymology: Wolverhampton is a place name, and its name records a woman. Lady Wulfruna, who founded the settlement, gave it its first form, Old English "Wulfrūnehēantūn", meaning roughly "Wulfruna's high farmstead" or estate, with the personal name at the front and the element "tūn" (enclosure, farmstead, later town) at the end. Over the centuries the name was worn down: the Middle English form "Wolverenhampton" shows the first part bending toward "wolf" and the second toward "Hampton," a common English place name ending. The result is that a town's name preserves a personal name from the Anglo-Saxon period, while the "wolf" in its modern spelling is a later reshaping rather than the original sense. Anyone reading the name today sees a wolf and a hamlet, but the founder's name lies underneath.