Etymology

somerset

som·er·set
S1O1M3E1R1S1E1T1

Today it means: A maritime county in the west of England bordered by Gloucestershire, Bristol, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon, the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel. Full definition →

Old English Sumorsǣte
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromSumorsǣte
  2. English todaySomerset

From Old English Sumorsǣte, which is short for Sumortūnsǣte, meaning "the people living at or dependent upon Sumortūn (Somerton)". An alternative suggestion is that the name derives from *Seo-mere-sætan meaning "settlers by the sea lakes".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.