chief city and capital of England, Latin Londinium (c.115), often explained as "place belonging to a man named Londinos," a supposed Celtic personal name meaning "the wild one," "but this etymology is rejected in an emphatic footnote in Jackson 1953 (p.308), and we have as yet nothing to put in its place" [Margaret Gelling, "Signposts to the Past: Place-Names and the History of England," Chichester, 1978]. London Bridge the children's singing game is attested from 1827. London broil "large flank steak broiled then cut in thin slices" attested by 1939, American English; London fog first attested 1830.
Old English Engla land, literally "the land of the Angles" (see English (n.1)), used alongside Angelcynn "the English race," which, with other forms, shows Anglo-Saxon persistence in thinking in terms of tribes before place. By late Old English times both words had come to be used with a clear sense of place; a Dane, Canute, is first to call himself "King of England." The loss of one of the duplicate syllables is a case of haplology.
attested from 1737.
Part of the official name of the British nation; the full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It includes England, Scotland, Wales, and six counties of Ireland, ruled by the king or queen of England, and represented in the nation's parliament.
One of the countries of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. London, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester are in England.
Note: The king or queen of England is the king or queen of the United Kingdom.
Note: The name England is often used to refer to all of Great Britain.
Capital of Britain, located in southeastern England on both sides of the Thames River; officially called Greater London; a financial, commercial, industrial, and cultural center and one of the world's greatest ports.
Note: Many buildings of central London were destroyed or damaged in air raids, called the Blitz (short for blitzkrieg), during World War II.
Note: London is the home of Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Tower of London, and the University of London.