eccles

E1C3C3L1E1S1
/ˈɛkəlz/

proper noun

A town in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.

OriginMiddle English Eccles ← Old English *Eccles ← Proto-Brythonic *eglēs →
Less commonScrabble 10
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Meanings

eccles1

noun
  1. pluralplural of eccle

Eccles2

proper noun
  1. A town in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
  2. A village in Aylesford parish, Tonbridge and Malling district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ7260).
  3. A village north-east of Kelso, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT7641).
  4. A commune in Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France.
  5. A census-designated place in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States, originally named Ecclesiastes.
  6. A surname.

    Television actor Will Mellor has come a surprise second in the World Gurning Championships, pipped to the main prize by local man Ged Eccles who had come close but never before won.

    2026 September 21, Jason Arunn Murugesu, “Actor Mellor's gurning beaten by Cumbria man”, in BBC News, retrieved 21 Sep 2026

Origin

  1. Proto-Brythonic*eglēs“church”
  2. Old English*Eccles
  3. Middle EnglishEccles
  4. EnglishEccles

From Middle English Eccles, from Old English *Eccles, borrowed from pre-Proto-Brythonic *eglēs (“church”), whence Proto-Brythonic *egluɨs. The sound change *ē > *uɨ is regular in Proto-Brythonic, but had evidently not yet occurred when place-name instances of *eglēs in the north were being borrowed into Old English; Jackson (1953) dates this change to the late 7th century. *g > *k is regular assuming borrowing into Old English, which did not have intervocalic /g/ except after a nasal. A number of toponyms in northern Britain are composed of Eccles plus a term of English origin, e.g. Eccleston (+ -ton), Eccleshill (+ hill). Doublet of ecclesia.

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Brythonic

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

eccles. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eccles

MLA

“eccles.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eccles. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eccles,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eccles.

Source: eccles on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.