The story
- Middle English · inherited fromDorsete
- English todayDorset
From the county town of Dorchester. The Old English name was Dornwaraceaster, composed of the British Latin name Durnovaria and the common suffix -ceaster; the word was eventually reduced to Dornsǣte, Dorsǣte, a reduction of the original name + the suffix -sǣte (“people, dwellers”), whence Middle English Dorsete.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.