Part 1

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THE ETYMOLOGY OF LOCAL NAMES.

WITH A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE RELATIONSHIP OF LANGUAGES.

TEUTONIC NAMES.

BY R. MORRIS, FORMERLY STUDENT OF BATTERSEA TRAINING COLLEGE.

Names have all some meaning when first imposed; and when a place is named for the first time, by any people, they apply to it some term—in early times generally descriptive of its natural peculiarities, or something else, on account of which it is remarkable, from their own language. When we find therefore, that the old names of natural objects and localities in a country belong, for the most part, to a particular language, we may conclude with certainty that a people speaking that language formerly occupied the country. Of this the names they have so impressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a distinct record of their existence in words engraven on the rocks. Such old names of places often long outlive both the people that bestowed them, and nearly all the material monuments of their occupancy. The language, as a vehicle of oral communication, may gradually be forgotten and be heard no more where it was once in universal use, and the old topographical nomenclature may still remain unchanged.—_Pictorial History of England._

LONDON: JUDD & GLASS, NEW BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS, E.C.

LONDON: PRINTED BY JUDD & GLASS, NEW BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS, E.C.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 5

WORKS CONSULTED 10

THE VALUE OF LOCAL NAMES 11

THE COMPOSITION OF LOCAL NAMES 13

DIVISION I.—DESCRIPTIVE ELEMENT.

(_A_) NAMES OF TRIBES, INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, AND GODS 14 (_a_) TRIBES 14 (_b_) FAMILIES 15 (_c_) INDIVIDUALS 17 (_d_) GODS 18

(_B_) NAMES OF ANIMALS 19

(_C_) NAMES OF TREES, PLANTS, &C. 27

(_D_) NAMES OF MINERALS 32

(_E_) NAMES OF QUALITIES 33

DIVISION II.—GENERAL ELEMENT.

(_A_) NAMES OF RIVERS, LAKES, &C. 35

(_B_) NAMES OF MOUNTAINS, HILLS, &C. 47

(_C_) NAMES OF VALLEYS, PLAINS, WOODS, &C. 53

(_D_) NAMES OF HABITATIONS 59

INTRODUCTION.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF LANGUAGES.

“Languages,” says the author of “The Cosmos,” “compared with each other, and considered as objects of the natural history of the human mind, being divided into families according to the analogy of their internal structure, have become a rich source of historical knowledge. Products of the mental powers, they lead us back, by the fundamental characters of their organisation, to an obscure and otherwise unknown distance. The comparative study of languages shows how races, or nations, now separated by wide regions, are related to each other, and have proceeded from a common seat; it discloses the directions and paths of ancient migrations; in tracing out epochs of development, it recognises in the more or less altered characters of the language, in the permanency of certain forms, or the already advanced departure from them, which portion of the race has preserved a language nearest to that of their former common dwelling-place.”

The coincidences between the languages of the globe have been made the subject of careful study by eminent scholars, who have established _Comparative Philology_ upon the footing of a new science.

It has been found that mere verbal comparisons are utterly worthless in determining either the formation of groups of languages or their relations to one another. The dictionary of a nation may be borrowed, for words are soon lost and easily replaced; but the grammar of a language—that is to say, its syntax, conjugations, and declensions, the formation of new words from certain primitive forms, and those relational words which perform a similar function, as pronouns, numerals, and particles—is as constant and invariable as the nation itself. Grammatical analysis and comparison is therefore the only true method for the classification of languages according to their radical affinity; mere superficial resemblances of words prove nothing, nor have they any value unless tested and confirmed by arguments drawn from grammatical structure.

On the evidence afforded by a searching grammatical analysis, the languages of the greater part of Europe and Asia have been divided into three great families, whose grammatical forms are perfectly clear and distinct. They have been named INDO-EUROPEAN or ARIAN, SEMITIC, and TURANIAN.

(A) THE INDO-EUROPEAN or ARIAN family of languages extends from the mouth of the Ganges to the British Isles and the Northern extremity of Scandinavia. The term Arian is derived from ARYA, the original name of this family. It signifies _honourable_, or _of a good family_. In Asia we find two great branches of this family:

I. _The Indian._ This branch includes the Sanskrit (the language of the Vedas, the first literary monument of the Arian world), with its living representatives, the Hindustani, Mahratti, Bengali, Guzerati, Singhalese, &c.; the Prakrit and Pali idioms; the Siah-Posh (Kafir dialect), and the language of the Gipsies.

II. _The Iranian_ or _Persian_. To this branch belong the Zend or Old Persian (the language of the Zendavesta), with its representatives; the language of the Achaemenians, written in the Cuneiform character; the speech of Huzvaresh or Pehlevi; the Pazend or Parsi; and the modern Persian. The following dialects, though not very important in a philological view, belong to this class:—the Afghan, Bokhara, Kurdian, Armenian, and Ossetian.

In Europe there are no less than six branches of the Arian family:

I. _The Celtic._ Though the Celts seem to have been the first inhabitants of Europe, very few of their dialects are now spoken, having been superseded by the Teutonic idioms.

Modern Celtic dialects are divided into two classes; (_a_) the Gallic or Ancient British, including the Welsh (Cymric), Cornish, and Armorican of Brittany; (_b_) the Galic, Gadhelic, or Erse, including the Irish (Fenic), the Highland Scottish (Gaelic), and Manx, the dialect of the Isle of Man.

II. _The Teutonic._ This branch is divided into three dialects; (_a_) the High German, including the Old High German, the Middle High German, and the Modern High German; (_b_) the Low German, including the Gothic, the Anglo-Saxon and English, the Old Saxon and Platt-Deutsch, the Frisic, the Dutch and Flemish; (_c_) the Scandinavian, including the Old Norsk, the Icelandic, the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish.

III. _The Italic._ To this class belong the Oscan, Umbrian, and Latin dialects; the Old Provençal, and the Romance languages (Provençal and French, Italian and Wallachian, Spanish and Portuguese) formed during the decay of the Latin.

IV. _The Hellenic._ This branch includes the Greek and its dialects, the Aeolic, Ionic, Doric, and Attic.

V. _The Albanian_; including the Geghian and the Toskian dialects spoken in Illyria and Epirus.

VI. _The Slavonic_ or _Windic_ branch is divided into two dialects; (_a_) the Lettic, including the Lithuanian, Old Prussian, and Lettish; (_b_) the Slavonic Proper, which is again divided into two branches, termed the Eastern and Western.

The Eastern dialect includes the Russian (Great, Little, and White Russian), the Servian, Kroatian, and Slovenian; and the Bulgarian, or in its oldest form, the Ecclesiastical Slavonic.

The Western dialect includes the Polish, the Bohemian, the Polabian, and the Lusatian.

(B) THE SEMITIC Family (so called from Shem, one of the sons of Noah) is not so widely extended as the Arian family, but the nations composing it were the first to appear upon the theatre of history. It comprises the following branches:—

I. _The Arabic_, which includes the Ethiopian or Abissinian and the Maltese.

II. _The Chaldean_, which includes the Old Babylonian, the Chaldee of Babylon and Mesopotamia, the Chaldee of Daniel and of the Targums, and the Syrian (Aramaic).

III. _The Hebrew_, the language of Canaan, which includes the Phœnician and Carthaginian.

IV. _The Berber dialects_, which are spoken in Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Fez. The Haussa and Galla dialects are now considered as Semitic idioms.

(C) THE TURANIAN family of languages is distinguished from the Arian and Semitic in the total absence of inflection.

To express the variations for case, mood, &c., Turanian words undergo no inflection; but an additional word is _glued_, as it were to the noun, verb, &c., as the case may be, in order to express the relations of case, mood, &c. Hence these have been termed _agglutinizing_ languages.

To connect the idea of plurality with the English word _boy_, we merely inflect it, and obtain the word _boys_; but upon the principle of agglutination, a syllable indicative of plurality must be affixed, _e.g._, singular, _boy_; plural, _boy-crowd_. Thus the roots are never obscured, while they admit of a _vocal harmony_ which is altogether peculiar to this family of languages; _e.g._, (Turkish) _aghâ_, a lord, becomes in the plural, _agha-lar_; _er_, a man becomes in the plural, _er-ler_, and not _er-lar_, as in the former case.

The vowels of the agglutinized syllables, it is easily seen, must harmonize with those of the roots; _e.g._, (Magyar) _kert_, a garden, makes _kert-esz-nek_ to the gardener, and not _kert-asz-nak_.

There are two great divisions of this family:—

I. _The Northern or Ural-Altaic division_ includes (_a_) the Tungusian dialects, spoken in Upper and Lower Tunguska, on the coast of Okhotsk, and by the Mantchoos or Mandshus (in China); (_b_) the Mongolian dialects, spoken in the North and South of Gobi, in Tibet and Tangut, in the plains on each side of the Volga (by the Olöts or Kalmuks) and by the Buriäts of Lake Baikal; (_c_) the Turkish dialects, spoken in Derbend, Krimea, Antolia, and Rumelia; (the Yakuts, the Tatars or Turks of Siberia, the Kirghis, the Bashkirs, the Kumians, the Nogais, and the Karatschais, the Usbegs, Uigurs, and Turkomans, speak Turkish dialects); (_d_) the Finnish dialects, spoken by the Hungarians, Lapps, Finns, Esths, Voguls, Permians, &c.; (_e_) the dialects of the Samoiedes and Ostiakes.

II. _The Southern division_ comprises the Tamul, the Bhotiya, and the Malay.

The Caucasian dialects are degenerated branches of the Turanian family; they include the idioms of the Georgians or Grusians, the Suans, the Lazes, the Lesghi, the Mitsgeghi, and the Kerkessians and Abasians.

WORKS CONSULTED.

“Local Nomenclature of the Anglo-Saxons,” by H. Leo.

“Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici,” edited by Professor Kemble.

“The Germania of Tacitus,” edited by Dr. Latham.

Bosworth’s “Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.”

Meidinger’s “Comparative Dictionary of the Gothic Tongues.”

Jamieson’s “Scottish Dictionary.”

“The Saxons in England,” by Professor Kemble.

Worsaae’s “Danes and Norwegians in England.”

“The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland,” by R. Ferguson.

Wright’s “Provincial Dictionary.”

THE ETYMOLOGY OF LOCAL NAMES.

_Names of places_ in a great measure belong to the oldest and most primitive evidences of language, and they are of the highest importance in the history of nations and dialects.—_H. Leo._

It cannot be doubted that _local names_, and those devoted to distinguish the natural features of a country, possess an inherent vitality which even the urgency of conquest is unable to remove.—_Kemble._

The geography and history of a nation must be sought in the language of the _name-givers_ of that country, or in a translation of the language of the name-givers of that country.—_Pococke._

Geographical nomenclature is a branch of geography generally left to chance or caprice; and it will not be easy to find any department so left, which has been more abused. Wherever names exist, and where these names may have existed for a number of ages, it appears something like sacrilege to disturb or change them; such names, besides the sacredness of antiquity, are often significant, and contain in themselves information as to the migrations of the human race, and the former connexion which existed between tribes now far separated. Names are seldom vulgar or ridiculous, and they furnish a copious fund of distributive terms, to obviate the confusion which arises to geographical nomenclature in the repetition for the hundredth time of rivers—Thames, Trent, and Tyne, &c.; and it fortunately happens that in no country, however barbarous or thinly peopled, are the great features of nature, as rivers and mountains, without names; and the name of a river or mountain may be appropriately applied also to the district in which it occurs.—_Capt. Vetch._

“He who calls departed ages again into being,” says Niebuhr, “enjoys a bliss like that of creating.” The study of words does this; it recalls the past with all its associations, so that for a time it becomes a part of the present. It cannot be otherwise, for every word rests upon some _fact_; so that when we attempt to account for the meaning of a word, we only go back to the fact upon which it rests. There is one class of words which is very suggestive—we mean those _names_ which have been attached for ages to places familiar to us from the days of our childhood, from our pleasure excursions, or from our course of reading. The thoughtful mind cannot remain long contented with names that convey no meaning with them; there is always the desire to retain them in the memory by some principle of association, and this leads to an inquiry concerning their origin and history, or when and why they were imposed. The study of place-names is one, then, of great interest to the historian and to the teacher. The signification of a single name throws much light upon the history of nations and their migrations. In point of fact, there is often more dependence to be placed upon words than upon history; for, says Halberstma, it pleases not the muse of history to speak but late, and then in a very confused manner: yet she often deceives; and before she comes to maturity she seldom distinctly tells us the truth. Language never deceives, but speaks more distinctly, though removed to a higher antiquity.

The object of the following pages is to supply teachers with the chief _root_ or _key_-words which are necessary for the explanation of local names in England, and such kindred forms as are to be met with in those countries occupied by nations belonging to the same family, and usually termed Teutonic. It is a well-known fact that many of the names of places in England are also common to Germany. Verstegan, in his scarce work, printed in 1605, very plainly alludes to it. “Thus the Saxons,” he says, “who at first came unto the aid of the Britons, became about two hundred years after, to be the possessors and sharers of the best part of the Isle of Britain among themselves. And, as their language was altogether different from that of the Britons, so left they very few cities, towns, villages, passages, rivers, woods, fields, hills, or dales that they gave not new names unto, such as in their own language were intelligible, and either given by reason of the situation or nature of the place, or after some place in some sort like unto it in Germany, from whence they came—as the name of Oxford or Oxenford, on the river Thames, after the town of the same name in Germany, situated on the Oder; our Hereford, near unto Wales, after Hervford, in Westphalia. And so, in like manner, may be said of Stafford, Swinford, Bradford, Norden, Newark, Bentham, Oxenbridge, Buchurst, Scorethorpe, Holt, Mansfield, Swinefield, Daventry, Hampstead, Radcliff, Rosendale, and a great number of places in our country, that yet retain the names of places in Germany and the Netherlands (albeit the ancient orthography may in some of them be a little varied), as here to be reckoned up would be tedious.”

We have chosen English names as the basis of comparison because they are more familiar, and, indeed, of more importance than any others. Emerson, speaking of them, says—“The names are excellent; an atmosphere of legendary melody spreads over the land. Older than all epics and histories, which clothe a nation, this under-shirt sits close to the body. What history, too, and what stores of primitive and savage observation, it unfolds!”

The names of places in England, and among the Teutonic tribes generally, are composed of two parts. The first member is a _descriptive_ word referring to some particular historical circumstance, to personages, to animals, vegetables, or minerals; or it may be merely an adjective. The second member designates, by some _general_ and appropriate term, either the natural features of the country, settlement, or neighbourhood to be described—as hill, mountain, river, &c.—or some artificial constructions, as town, borough, field, &c. The first member is generally prefixed to distinguish places having similar positions—_e.g._, Staple-ford, Notting-ham, New-ark, &c. Sometimes the names of places are represented by a single word—_e.g._, Slough, Ford, Holt, Down, Berg, Furt, &c.

All places do not admit of explanation. Those ending with _Ing_ or having after it Ham or Ton, are derived from the names of tribes, families, or individuals. The subject is naturally divided into—

I.—_The Descriptive Element._

(_a_) Names of Personages (Historical or Mythical). (_b_) Animals. (_c_) Vegetables. (_d_) Minerals. (_e_) Adjectives.

II.—_The General Element._

(_a_) Water, River, Brook, &c. (_b_) Mountain, Hill, &c. (_c_) Valley, Plain, &c. (_d_) Habitations.

DIVISION I.

DESCRIPTIVE ELEMENT.

(_A_) NAMES OF TRIBES, FAMILIES, INDIVIDUALS, AND GODS.

(_a_) _Tribes._

(1) GERMAN.—This name was not applied to the people of Germany by themselves, but they received it from the Celts on account of their terrible _war cry_. The root of the word is the Celtic verb _Gairmean_, “to cry out.”

(2) DUTCH (_Deutsch_).—This term, which is now applied to the people of Holland, is literally an adjective signifying “popular” (Diut-isc). It was originally applied to the _language_ of the Teutonic people in order to distinguish it from the Latin. The word TEUTONES, the Latin form of the native word Theotisci, _Teutisci_, &c., is derived from the Gothic root _Diut_, a “people or nation.” It occurs in the modern name TEUT-o-berger.

The following tribes have left their names as an element of local nomenclature:—

(3) ANGRIVARI, in ANGERN, ENGERN, ANGER-munde.

(4) ANGLES, in ANGLES-ey, ENG-land, ANGELN, HUNGER-ford (ANGLES-ford).

(5) ARAVISCI in the river RAAB, anciently ARABO.

(6) BURGUNDIANS, in BURGUNDY.

(7) CHERUSCI (_Crherstini_) in the HARTZ mountains, HARTZ-burg, and HERZ-burg. The root seems to be the Gothic _Har_, _Haruc_, “a temple.” In the poem of Beo-Wulf it occurs as the name of the great palatial hall of Hrothgar.

(8) CAUCI, in CUX-haven.

(9) CATTI, in HESSE.

(10) EUDOSES, in EYD-er, EUD-ing, and DOSSE.

(11) FRISIANS, in FRIES-land, FRIS-by, and FRIS-thorpe.

(12) GOTHS, in GOTH-land, GOTHEN-burg, GOTH-a.

(13) LANGOBARDI, in LOMBARDY, BARDEN-gan, BARD-wick.

(14) MONAVI (_Menapi_), in MAN, MONA, and MENAI straits.

(15) SAXONS, in Es-SEX (East Saxons), Sus-SEX (South Saxons), Middle-SEX (Middle Saxons), HOLSTEIN—_i.e._, Holt SASSEN, or Olt SASSEN, “Old Settlers.”

The inhabitants of Holstein were called HOLSATI or Holzati, from the Platt-Deutsch _Sitten_, _Satten_ “to sit.”

(16) SUIONES, SUEVI, in SWEDEN, SUABIA, ODER, at one time called SUEVUS, and the VIADRUS, whose mouth is still called SWINE-mund.

(17) SUARDONES, in SCHWART-au.

(18) THURINGI, in THURINGIAN-wald.

(19) RUGII, in the island of RUGEN.

(20) LEMOVII, in the river LEBA.

(21) DULGIBINI, in the river DULMEN.

(22) SITONES, in SIGTUN, SITUN.

(_b_) _Families._

The names of families and individuals enter largely into the composition of local names. They may be easily discovered by the particle ING before HAM, TON, HALL, &c. Thus BIRMING-ham was originally the home of the BEORMINGAS, the descendants of Beorm; BALDING-ham of the BAEDLINGAS; BUCKING-ham of the BUCINGAS; LITTLING-ton was originally the enclosed residence of the LYTHINGAS; ELVING-ton of the ELFINGAS, and KILLING-hall the fortified residence of the CYLINGAS.

Professors Leo and Kemble have thrown much light on this subject; the latter writer has furnished us with a valuable list of these family names in his _Saxons in England_.

The following extract from the pen of Mr. Wright will be of some service to the students of names:—

The family or clan did not always take its name from the chief who obtained the allotment of land; it was often but a branch of a much older family in the land from which the settlement came. Hence we find patronymics in distant parts of England, which would seem to indicate that different members of the same original family had joined in various separate expeditions to Britain; and it is still more curious that this identity of name is found in districts peopled severally by the different races, Angles, Saxons, or Jutes. This admits of two explanations; it shows the close relationship between the three races themselves, and it proves, probably, that when a great chieftain of one race, an Angle, for instance, planned an expedition to Britain, subordinate leaders from the other Saxons, Jutes, or others, were ready to enlist among his followers. Thus we find the BILLINGAS at BILLING-ham in Durham, at BILLING-ley in Yorkshire, at BILLING-hay in Lincolnshire, at BILLING-ton in the counties of Bedford, Stafford, and Lancaster, as well as at other places, all within the district occupied by the Angles. We find a settlement of the same family at BILLING-hurst, in Sussex, and some of them appear to have established themselves in the outskirts of London, and to have given name to BILLINGS-gate. (There was a family of BILLUNG on the Continent; and Hermann Billung was invested with the Duchy of Saxony by Otto I. In 1106 the male line of this house became extinct on the death of the last Billung, Duke Magnus, who left two daughters, Eilike and Wulfhild; Wulfhild was married to Henry of Bavaria, surnamed the Black, a descendant of the Guelph family.) The BOSINGAS are found at BOSING-ham in Kent, and again at the two BOSSINGTONS in Hampshire and Somerset.