English Explanatory Dictionary

Metcalf

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A Northern English surname.

Word forms

Metcalf Metcalfs Medcalf Medcalfe Metcalfe Mitcalfe

Etymology

Possibly from Old English *metecealf (“meat calf”), a calf to be fattened up for eating. The use as a surname could have started off as a jocular nickname for an individual thought to be as "fat as a prize-calf"; or else in reference to the occupation involved in fattening up such a calf.

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