Flanders

From Middle English Flaunders, Flaundress, flawndirs, from Old French Flandres, from Middle Dutch vlâendren pl, from Vlander, from Old Frisian, from Proto-Germanic *flaumdrą (“waterlogged land”), from *flaumaz (“flowing, current (water)”) (compare Old High German weraltfloum (“transitoriness of life”), Old Norse flaumr (“eddy”)), from Proto-Indo-European *plow-m- (“flow”) (compare Ancient Greek πλῠ́μα (plúma, “dishwater, washing water”)). More at flow. "Waterlogged" refers to the mudflats and salt marshes common to coastal Flanders.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈflɑːn.dəz/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈflæn.dɚz/
• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɑːndə(ɹ)z, (General American) -ændə(ɹ)z

Flanders (countable and uncountable, plural Flanderses)

1. The County of Flanders, a historical county of Europe, of varying extent.
   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     When you went / Ambassador to the Emperor, you made bold / To carry into Flanders the great seal.

2. A community and administrative region in the north of Belgium, consisting of the Dutch-speaking area of Belgium.
3. Two provinces in Belgian Flanders, West-Flanders and East-Flanders.
4. Ellipsis of French Flanders, a former province of France, now constituting the French department Nord.
5. The principal railway station in Lille, capital of the above.
6. A surname.

• Belgium
• Brussels
• Wallonia

• Ferlands, Fernalds, snarfled