Boston
UK /ˈbɒstən/ · US /ˈbɔstən/ proper noun, noun
Forms Bostons
- proper noun A town and borough in Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3244).
- proper noun The capital and largest city of Massachusetts, the informal capital of New England, and the county seat of Suffolk County.
- proper noun (metonymic) The Massachusetts government.
- proper noun An inactive township in Madison County, Arkansas.
- proper noun A township in Washington County, Arkansas.
- proper noun A city in Georgia; named for Thomas M. Boston, who found a medicinal spring near the town site.
- proper noun A township and town therein, in Wayne County, Indiana; named for the city in Massachusetts.
- proper noun A neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky.
- noun (card games) In the card game spades, a bid of all 13 tricks.
- noun A Boston lettuce.
Synonyms
Beantown Hub of the Universe Bean Town capital of Massachusetts
Etymology
The US city is named after the English town (from which several prominent colonists had come), which itself is sometimes said to be named as a contraction of Botolph's town or Botolph's stone (the name Botolph itself coming from Old English Botwulf, from boda + wulf). However, this is uncertain.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “Boston”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details