This week's theme
Toponyms

This week's words
bohemian
damson
Gretna Green
whitehall
rounceval

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(GRET-nuh green)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A place where couples elope to to get married.
2. Such a wedding.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Gretna Green, a village in Scotland on the English border. English couples who had not reached the age of majority eloped to Gretna Green where such a wedding was permitted. A wedding was typically performed by a blacksmith in his shop. Earliest documented use: 1813.

USAGE:

"They finished up with a Gretna Green elopement of a couple in a terrible old Model T Ford, with Father chasing after them all over the aerodrome."
Nevil Shute; Round the Bend; William Morrow; 1951.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: