Le Havre
/lə ˈhɑːvɹə/ proper noun
Forms Havre
- proper noun A city and major port beside the mouth of the River Seine in Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France.
Synonyms
Franciscopolis Ville-de-Grâce Le Havre-de-Grâce Le Havre-de-Marat Havre-Marat
Etymology
Borrowed from French Le Havre (“The Harbor”), a 19th-century French clipping of Le Havre-de-Grâce (“The Harbor of Grace”), a combination of its earlier Norman name Hable (“Harbor”) and the short-lived name Ville-de-Grâce, which it bore following its 1517 refounding by Francis I, referencing the supposedly miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary acquired by Cambrai Cathedral in 1450 and known in French as Notre-Dame de Grâce. Nearby Honfleur had similarly named its cathedral (subsequently destroyed by a landslide) in its honor.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “Le Havre”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details