New Scotland Yard
1
3.9
- proper noun
:
Nueva Scotland Yard
- The New Scotland Yard building is impressive.
Examples
-
Is New Scotland Yard open today?
-
Photographers gathered outside New Scotland Yard to document a significant ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
-
Many major cases are handled by the detectives of New Scotland Yard each year.
-
Police officers at New Scotland Yard issued a statement regarding the investigation.
-
Security was tight outside New Scotland Yard following the press briefing.
-
Detective Chief Superintendent Durk works at New Scotland Yard, which is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service.
-
After years of investigation, the case was finally solved with the help of detectives from New Scotland Yard.
Synonyms
12
3.5
The main office of London's police detectives
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a proper name for the Metropolitan Police headquarters; the literal words 'new', 'Scotland' and 'yard' do not indicate 'police headquarters' and a B1 learner who knows the constituents would not be able to derive that institutional meaning. The phrase is historically rooted and functions as a fixed place name, so its meaning is idiomatic and not compositionally predictable.
Etymology
New Scotland Yard comes from an old place name near the royal palace called 'Scotland Yard'. One popular story says that spot was where Scottish visitors or their offices stayed, so people called the small open area Scotland (for the visitors) and Yard (a courtyard). When London's police set their main office there the name stuck and later became New Scotland Yard, so today it means the Metropolitan Police 'headquarters' and detectives.