English

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Etymology

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From Middle English Westsex, from Old English Westseaxan (literally West Saxons), which stood for both Wessex and its people. The use of Wessex in a modern context for the West Country was popularised by Thomas Hardy, who used the term for his semi-fictional setting based on the region.

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

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Wessex

  1. (historical) One of the seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, existing between the 6th and 9th centuries, and comprising most of England south of the Thames.
    • 1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, [], published 1896, →OCLC:
      Grey-stoned and dun-roofed, it stood within hail of the Wessex border, and almost with the tip of one small toe within it, at the northernmost point of the crinkled line along which the leisurely Thames strokes the fields of that ancient kingdom.
  2. The West Country (south-west England).
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Translations

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