Shetland
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Scots Shetland, Middle Scots Ȝetland, from Old Norse Hjaltland, by surface analysis, hjalt (“hilt”) + land (“land”). Andrew Jennings suggests the name derives from the tribal name Calēdonēs (as in Caledonia), considering the geographer Ptolemy already called the sea north of Scotland ὠκεανός Δουηκαλεδονίος (ōkeanós Douēkaledoníos); if this is correct, the borrowing into Germanic would need to have occurred at such an early date that it took part in the Germanic sound-shift, changing *kalid- to *halit-, after which it underwent folk etymological reshaping to Old Norse hjalt (“hilt”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈʃɛtlənd/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Proper noun
Shetland
- Ellipsis of the Shetland Islands: an archipelago and council area of Scotland.
- A historical county of Scotland.
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
Shetland (countable and uncountable, plural Shetlands)
- (uncountable) A particular breed of pony.
- (countable) A pony of this breed.
- (uncountable) A particular breed of sheep.
- (countable) A sheep of this breed.
- (uncountable) Alternative letter-case form of shetland: light, loose wool fabric.
- 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 17:
- […] I'll tell you what else is a fact. It's a fact that he is wearing his blue Shetland turtle-neck today. Even as we speak his body is moving inside it. Warm and quick. It's more than flesh and blood can stand.
Synonyms
- (breed of pony): Shetland pony (more common)
- (pony): Shetland pony (more common)
References
Jennings, Andrew: The etymology of the name Shetland: an examination of possibilities
Anagrams
Dutch
Etymology
Proper noun
Shetland n
- Shetland, Shetland Islands (an archipelago and council area of Scotland, roughly north-east of the Orkney Islands; the northernmost part of Scotland and the United Kingdom)
- Synonyms: Shetlandeilanden, (obsolete) Hitland
Derived terms
- Shetlandeilanden
- Shetlander, shetlander
- shetlandpony
- Shetlands
Further reading
- Shetland on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia nl
Norwegian Bokmål
Proper noun
Shetland
- Shetland, Shetland Islands (an archipelago and council area of Scotland, roughly north-east of the Orkney Islands; the northernmost part of Scotland and the United Kingdom)
Synonyms
- Shetlandsøyene
Derived terms
Related terms
- shetlandsk
- shetlender, shetlending
Norwegian Nynorsk
Alternative forms
- Sjetland (alternative spelling)
Etymology
Borrowed from English Shetland, from Scots Shetland, from Middle Scots Ȝetland, from Old Norse Hjaltland. Doublet of Hjaltland.
Proper noun
Shetland
- Shetland, Shetland Islands (an archipelago and council area of Scotland, roughly north-east of the Orkney Islands; the northernmost part of Scotland and the United Kingdom)
Synonyms
- Shetlandsøyane
Derived terms
Related terms
- shetlandsk
- shetlendar, shetlending
Slovak
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈʃetʎent]
Proper noun
Shetland
- genitive of Shetlandy
Swedish
Proper noun
Shetland n (genitive Shetlands)
- ellipsis of Shetlandsöarna: an archipelago and council area of Scotland: Shetland