Editing Dorset (section)

==Toponymy==
Dorset derives its name from the [[county town]] of [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]].<ref name="place names">{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/Subjects_and_Titles__2B_05 |title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2003 |first=A.D. |last=Mills |access-date=15 May 2012 |archive-date=6 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406104255/http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/Subjects_and_Titles__2B_05 |url-status=live}}{{subscription required}}</ref> The [[Roman Britain|Romans]] established the settlement in the 1st century and named it [[Durnovaria]] which was a Latinised version of a [[Common Brittonic]] word possibly meaning "place with fist-sized pebbles".<ref name="place names"/> The [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxons]] named the town ''Dornwaraceaster'' (the suffix {{lang|ang|[[Chester (placename element)|-ceaster]]}} being the [[Old English]] name for a "Roman town"; cf. [[Exeter#Name|Exeter]] and [[Gloucester#Etymology|Gloucester]]) and ''Dornsæte'' came into use as the name for the inhabitants of the area from ''Dorn'' (a reduced form of ''Dornwaraceaster'') and the Old English word {{lang|ang|sæte}} (meaning "people").<ref name="place names"/><ref>Yorke (p. 84)</ref>  The same ending can also be seen in the neighbouring [[Somerset#Toponymy|Somerset]]. It is first mentioned in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' in AD&nbsp;845 and in the 10th century the county's archaic name, ''Dorseteschyre'' (Dorsetshire), was first recorded.<ref name="DCM">{{cite web |url=http://www.dorsetcountymuseum.org/dorsetcountyboundarysurvey |title=Dorset County Boundary Survey |publisher=[[Dorset County Museum]] |year=2010 |access-date=15 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712001143/http://www.dorsetcountymuseum.org/dorsetcountyboundarysurvey |archive-date=12 July 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>