Dunsmuir

The story

1. Old Welsh · derived fromDin Maur“great fort”
2. Scottish Gaelic · borrowed fromdùn“fort, fortress”
3. Scots · borrowed frommuir“moor”
4. English todayDunsmuir

From Old English personal name *Dynn, genitive case *Dynnes + Scots muir (“moor”). Alternatively from either: # Scottish Gaelic dùn (“fort, fortress”) + muir (“sea, ocean”), 'the fort by the sea'. # Old Welsh Din Maur (“great fort”). The collative s in the proposed Celtic sources could come via Scots on analogy with words such as Dunsmore or Dunston, in which cases the -s is a remnant of a genitive case ending. The town in California is named after San Francisco businessman Alexander Dunsmuir.

Words from the same roots