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A.Word.A.Day--balbriggan

Oh, the places you'll go! The summer is here (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) and it's time to head out. In A.Word.A.Day we'll take you to places that have words coined after them. In this trip we'll visit Europe, specifically, Ireland, England, Sardinia, Belgium, and Etruria.

This week we'll look at toponyms, words derived from the names of places. The word toponym is from Greek topos (place), the same word that gave us topic, topiary, isotope, and utopia. All aboard the AWAD Express!

balbriggan (bal-BRIG-uhn) noun

A knitted, unbleached cotton fabric, used in hosiery and underwear.

[After Balbriggan, a town near Dublin in Ireland, where it was first made.]

See more usage examples of balbriggan in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"No, there you are, as sensible as ever you were, with a pair of good balbriggan stockings on and sensible shoes." Agatha Christie; The Mystery of the Blue Train; 1928.

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