Bristol
/ˈbrɪs.təl/noun
A city and unitary authority in southwest England.
Did you know?Bristol’s name is usually traced to Old English *Brycgstow*, meaning a “bridge place,” showing how a city’s identity could be built into a single power-word of place.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
Brycgstow
“bridge place; site by a bridge”
11th–12th Century
English
Briggestowe / Bristow
“medieval spellings of the city name”
Middle English
English
Bristowe
“the city name in later medieval English”
Modern English
English
Bristol
“the standard modern form of the city name”