Etymology
. In a rock inscription of the sixteenth century, Tiruchirappalli is mentioned as Tiru-ssila-palli meaning "holy-rock-town" in Tamil and Orientalists Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell believed that the name Tiruchirappalli might have been derived from it. A few other scholars feel that the name Tiruchirappalli might have been derived from Tiru-chinna-palli meaning "holy little town". The Madras Glossary gives the root as Tiruććināppalli or the "holy (tiru) village (palli) of the shina (Cissampelos pareira) plant".
During British rule, Tiruchirappalli was commonly referred to using the erroneous spelling "Trichinopoly". The shortened forms "Trichy" or "Tiruchi" are commonly used while the full name Tiruchirapalli is seldom used. During the early 1990s when the Tamil Nadu state government decreed full name be used for destination on intercity mofussil buses it caused confusion among travelers accustomed to boarding a bus labeled "Trichy."
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