Flanders

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The County of Flanders, of varying extent.
• A subnational state in the north of federal Belgium, the institutional merger of a territorial region and the Dutch language 'community' which also has/shares some authority in the capital region Brussels.
• Two provinces in Belgian Flanders: (West-Flanders and East-Flanders).
• Short for French Flanders, a former province of the French kingdom on territory taken from the above countship, now constituting the French department Nord.
• The principal railway station in Lille, capital of the above.

Origin

• From French Flandres, from Dutch Vlaanderen, from Middle Dutch Vlander, from Old Frisian, from Proto-Germanic *flaumdra, from *flaumaz (compare Old High German weraltfloum, Old Norse flaumr), from Proto-Indo-European *plow-m- (compare Ancient Greek πλῠ́μα). More at flow. "Waterlogged" refers to the mudflats and salt marshes common to coastal Flanders.