Etymology
The Irish name Muineachán derives from a diminutive plural form of the Irish word muine meaning "brake" (a thickly overgrown area) or sometimes "hillock". Patrick Weston Joyce interpreted this as "a place full of little hills or brakes". Monaghan County Council's preferred interpretation is "land of the little hills", a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area.
Read more about this topic: Monaghan
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
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