Word.ws English Dictionary

Zetland

Zetland proper noun: until 1974, the official name for the Shetland Islands.

Proper noun

Zetland

  1. (historical) Until 1974, the official name for the Shetland Islands.
    • That long, narrow, and irregular island, usually called the Main-Land of Zetland, because it is by far the largest of that Archipelago, terminates, as is well known to the mariners who navigate the stormy seas which surround the Thule of the ancients, in a cliff of tremendous height, entitled...1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Pirate. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 3
  2. An inner southern suburb of the City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, named after Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland.

Origin of Zetland

Spelling pronunciation of Middle Scots Ȝetland with the letter ⟨ȝ⟩ confused with ⟨z⟩.

Words formed from Zetland

Questions about Zetland

What does Zetland mean?
Zetland means until 1974, the official name for the Shetland Islands.
What part of speech is Zetland?
Zetland is a proper noun.

Words near Zetland in the dictionary

  1. zetidoline
  2. Zetina
  3. Zetinas
  4. Zetino
  5. Zetinos
  6. Zetland
  7. Zetlander
  8. Zetlanders
  9. Zetlandic
  10. zets
  11. zetta-

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Zetland (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Zetland.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zetland. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.