Etymology

Drayton

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Today it means: A suburban area of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU672860). Full definition →

Middle English Drayton ← Old English Drægtūn ← Proto-Brythonic *treβ
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The story

  1. Proto-Brythonic · derived from*treβ“town, settlement”
  2. Old English · inherited fromDrægtūn
  3. Middle English · inherited fromDrayton
  4. English todayDrayton

From Middle English Drayton, from Old English Drægtūn (literally “town where logs are dragged”), from draġan (“to draw, drag”) + tūn (“enclosure, town”). Alternatively from Proto-Brythonic *treβ (“town, settlement”) + Old English tūn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.