Worcestershire

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A pungent condiment made from fermented anchovies, soy sauce, and various spices, typically used to flavor dishes or as a table sauce
2. A tangy, deeply flavored sauce of fermented fish and seasonings originating from England, commonly added to soups, stews, and savory preparations
3. A complex, savory sauce produced through fermentation of anchovies and spices, characteristically sharp in taste and widely employed in cooking and seasoning

Etymology: The county's name is a plain compound: "Worcester", the name of the city at its heart, joined to "-shire", the old English word for a county or district. The earlier form, Old English "Weogornaċeastresċīr", shows the city's name was once longer, and the "-shire" element has been stable since Old English times. The spelling you see, with its silent or nearly silent syllables, reflects centuries of worn-down pronunciation rather than a change in meaning. Because the city gave its name to the shire, the word is a place name first and an adjective second: "Worcestershire sauce" is the sauce made in or associated with that county, and the same pattern makes "Worcestershire" an adjective in phrases of that kind. Nothing about the word's history turns on a person, an invention or a change of sense, so its story is simply that of an English county named after its principal town.