The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #130032   Message #2923095
Posted By: Penny S.
08-Jun-10 - 10:47 AM
Thread Name: BS: True place names
Subject: RE: BS: True place names
It's not as clear as it might be. For instance, Goldford (now Guildford) is the ford where marsh marigolds grew. And while Essex and Sussex may well end with the element seax, meaning something like a bowie knife (general purpose, now that's a knife type thing, not exactly a sword, on display in museums) they do it because they were Saxons, people of the knife, living in the east and the south, and where the stones came in I know not. (Not when I did my place names evening class, they weren't there.)

Dover is not Watertown as there is no town element in the name. It was, in Celtic and English, the place "At the Waters". It is interesting because the case ending of Dubris was carried over to the case ending of Dofras, which argues for the name's meaning being known to the English settlers - and you don't bother about grammar when you invade destructively.

I know I'm being pedantic here.... it's a great idea.

Penny