A Dictionary of Place-Names Giving Their Derivations
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to of tt of Toronto by THE ONTARIO ARCHIVES DICTIONARY OF PLACE-NAMES :AL ETYMOLOGY A DICTIONARY OF PLACE-NAMES GIVING THEIR DERIVATIONS BY C BLACK IE WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN STUART BLACKIE PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH THIRD EDITION, REVISED 522274 />. 5 SI LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1887 PREFACE THE Introduction, by which the present work is ushered into public notice, renders any lengthened Preface on my part quite unnecessary. Yet I wish to say a few words with regard to the design and plan of this little volume. The subject, though no doubt possessing a peculiar interest to the general reader, and especially to tourists in these travelling days, falls naturally under the head of historical and instruction in schools geographical ; and for such use the book is, in the first place, specially intended. When I was myself one of a class in this city where Geography and History were taught, no information connected with etymology was imparted to us. We learned, with more or less trouble and edification, the names of rote but our teacher countries, towns, etc., by ; did not ask us who gave the names to these places, nor were we expected to inquire or to know if there was any connection between their names and their VI PREFACE histories. are and I believe Things changed now ; the first stimulus to an awakening interest in Geo- graphical Etymology was given by the publication of the Rev. Isaac Taylor's popular work, Words and Places. About ten years ago, I found that the best teachers in the English schools of Edinburgh did ask questions on this subject, and I discovered, at the same time, that a book specially bearing upon it was a desideratum in school literature. As no one better qualified came forward, I was induced to make the and I the the result of attempt ; hope following pages, much research and in the face of no small discourage- ment, may prove useful to teachers, as well as to their pupils. The Index at the end of the volume, although it contains many names not included in the body of the work, does by no means include all that I have given there. This did not seem necessary, because, the root words being alphabetically arranged, an intelligent teacher or pupil will easily find the key to the explana- tion of any special name by referring to the head under which it is naturally classed. I must, however, premise that, with regard to names derived from the Celtic languages, the root word is generally placed at the beginning of the name that is, if it contain more than one syllable. This is the case with such vocables as pen, ben, dun, Us, rath, strath, etc.; e.g. Lismore, Ben- more, Dungarvan, Strath-Allan. On the other hand, PREFACE Vll in names derived from the Teutonic or Scandinavian languages, the root word comes last, as will be found with regard to ton, dale, burg, berg, stadt, dorf, ford, etc. The index, therefore, may be expected to include principally such names as, either through corruption or abbreviation, have materially changed their form, such as are formed from the simple root, like Fiirth, Ennis, Delft, or such as contain more than one, as in Portrush, it being uncertain under which head I may have placed such names. Along with the root words, called by the Germans Grundwb'rter, I have given a number of defining words (Bestimmnngswdrier} such adjectives as express variety in colour, form, size, etc. It is to be regretted that many names have neces- sarily been omitted from ignorance or uncertainty with regard to their derivation. This is the case, unfortu- nately, with several well-known and important towns Glasgow, Berlin, Berne, Madrid, Paisley, etc. With regard to these and many others, I shall be glad to receive reliable information. And now it only remains for me to express my obligations to the gentlemen who have kindly assisted me in this work, premising that, in the departments which they have revised, the credit of success is due to while I reserve to blame mainly them ; myself any which may be deservedly attached to failures or omis- sions. The Celtic portion of my proof-sheets has been Vlll PREFACE revised by Dr. Skene, the well-known Celtic scholar of this city, and by Dr. Joyce, author of Irish Names of Places. I have also to thank the Rev. Isaac Taylor, author of Words and Places, for the help and encour- which he has me from time to time agement given ; and Mr. Paterson, author of the Magyars, for valuable information which I received from him regarding the topography of Hungary. I appreciate the assistance given me by these gentlemen the more, that it did not proceed from personal friendship, as I was an entire stranger to all of them. It was the kindness and courtesy of the stronger and more learned to one weaker less than themselves and I and gifted ; beg they may receive my grateful thanks, along with the little volume which has been so much their debtor. C. B. EDINBURGH, July 1887. INTRODUCTION AMONG the branches of human speculation that, in recent times, have walked out of the misty realm of conjecture into the firm land of science, and from the silent chamber of the student into the breezy fields of public life, there are few more interesting than Etymology. For as words are the common counters, or coins rather, with which we mark our points in all the business and all the sport of life, any man whose curiosity has not been blunted by familiarity, will naturally find a pleasure in understanding what the and on these markers image superscription mean ; and amongst words there are none that so powerfully stimulate this curiosity as the names of persons and places. About these the intelligent interest of young is often manifested and it is a persons prominently ; sad thing when parents or teachers, who should be in a position to gratify this interest, are obliged to waive an eager intelligence aside, and by repeated negations to repel the curiosity which they ought to have en- couraged. Geography indeed, a subject full of interest b INTRODUCTION to the young mind, has too often been taught in such a way as neither to delight the imagination with vivid pictures, nor to stimulate inquiry by a frequent reference to the of this is an evil if history names ; and which, found to a certain extent in all countries, is particularly rank in Great Britain, where the language of the country is composed of fragments of half a dozen languages, which only the learned understand, and which, to the ear of the many, have no more significance than if they were Hebrew or Coptic. The composite structure of our English speech, in fact, tends to conceal from us the natural of so that in our organism language ; case, it requires a special training to make us fully aware of " the great truth announced by Home Tooke, that in language there is nothing arbitrary." Nevertheless, the curiosity about the meaning of words, though seldom is not in this of cherished, easily extinguished ; and, age locomotion, there are few scraps of information more grateful to the intelligent tourist than those which relate to the significance of topographical names. When, for instance, the London holiday-maker, in his trip to the West Highlands, setting foot in one of Mr. Hutchinson's steamboats at Oban, on his way to the historic horrors of Glencoe, finds on his larboard side a long, low island, green and treeless, called Lismore, he will be pleased, no doubt, at first by simply hearing so euphonious a word in a language that he had been taught to believe was harsh and barbarous, but will be transported into an altogether different region of intel- INTRODUCTION xi ligent delight when he is made to understand that this island is wholly composed of a vein of limestone, found only here in the midst of a wide granitic region skirted with virtue of this the trap ; that, by limestone, island, though treeless, is more fertile than the surrounding this it districts ; and that for reason has received the Celtic designation of Liosmor, or the great garden. Connected with this etymology, not only is the topo- graphical name made to speak reasonably to a reason- able being, but it contains in its bosom a geological fact, and an ceconomical issue, bound together by a bond of association the most natural and the most permanent. The pleasant nature of the intelligence thus awakened leads us naturally to lament that, except to those who are born in Celtic districts and speak the Celtic language, the significance of so many of our most common topographical names in the most interesting districts is lost it deserves consideration practically ; and whether, in our English and classical schools, so much at least of the original speech of the country should not be taught as would enable the intelligent student to know the meaning of the local names, to whose parrot-like repetition he must otherwise be condemned. Some of the Celtic words habitually used in the designation of places such as Ben, Glen, Strath, and Loch have been incorporated into the common English the addition to this stock is not tongue ; and very large, which would enable an intelligent traveller to hang the points of his picturesque tour on a philological peg that xii INTRODUCTION would most materially insure both their distinctness and their more the of permanence.