a dwelling, camp, or district; e.g. Dar-el-hajar (the rocky district), in Egypt; Darfur (the district of the Foor or Foorians, or the deer country), in Central Africa; Dera-Fati-Khan, Dera-Ghazi-Khan, Dera-Ismail-Khan (i.e. the camps of these three chiefs, in the Derajat, or camp district); Deir (the monk’s dwelling), in Syria; Diarbekr (the dwellings or tents of Bekr); Dehi-Dervishan (the villages of the dervishes); Deh-haji (the pilgrims’ village); Dekkergan (the village of wolves); Deir-Antonius (St. Anthony’s monastery), in Egypt; Buyukdereh (Turc. the great district on the Bosphorus).
DAR, DERO, DERYN (Cym.-Cel.),
DAIR (Gadhelic),
an oak, cognate with the Lat. drus, and Sansc. dru, doire, or daire, Gadhelic, an oak-wood, Anglicised derry, darach, or dara, the gen. of dair; e.g. Daragh (a place abounding in oaks); Adare, i.e. Athdara (the ford of the oak); Derry, now Londonderry, was originally Daire-Calgaigh (the oak-wood of Galgacus, Latinised form of Calgaigh). In 546, when St. Columba erected his monastery there, it became Derry-Columkille (the oak-wood of Columba’s Church); in the reign of James I., by a charter granted to the London merchants, it obtained its present name; Derry-fad (the long oak-wood); Derry-na-hinch (of the island, innis); Dairbhre or Darrery (the oak forest), the Irish name for the Island of Valentia; Derry-allen (beautiful wood); Derrybane and Derrybawn (white oak-wood); Derrylane (broad oak-wood); Durrow, Irish Dairmagh, and Latinised Robereticampus (the plain of the oaks); New and Old Deer (the oak-wood), in Aberdeenshire, was a monastery erected in early times by St. Columba, and given by him to St. Drostan. The old monastery was situated near a wooded hill, still called Aikie-Brae (oak hill), and a fair was held annually in the neighbourhood, called Mercatus querceti (the oak market)—v. Book of Deer, p. 48; Craigendarroch (the crag of the oak-wood); Darnock, or Darnick (the oak hillock), in Roxburghshire; Dryburgh, corrupt. from Darach-bruach (the bank of oaks); Dori, the name of a round hill covered with oak-trees, in Wales; Darowen (Owen’s oak-wood), in Wales.
DEICH, DYK (Teut.),
a dyke or entrenchment. These dykes were vast earthen ramparts constructed by the Anglo-Saxons to serve as boundaries between hostile tribes; e.g. Hoorndyk (the dyke at the corner); Grondick (green dyke); Wansdyke (Woden’s dyke); Grimsdyke and Offa’s dyke (named after the chiefs Grim and Offa); Houndsditch (the dog’s dyke); Ditton, Dixton (towns enclosed by a dyke); Zaadik, in Holland, (the dyke) on the R. Zaad. Cartsdike, a village in Renfrewshire separated from Greenock by the burn Cart. Besides Grimesdyke (the name for the wall of Antoninus, from the R. Forth to the Clyde), there is a Grimsditch in Cheshire.
DELF (Teut.),
a canal, from delfan (to dig); e.g. Delft, a town in Holland, intersected by canals; Delfshaven (the canal harbour); Delfbrüke (canal bridge).
DEN, DEAN (Saxon),
a deep, wooded valley. This word is traced by Leo and others to the Celtic dion (protection, shelter); e.g. Dibden (deep hollow); Hazeldean (the valley of hazels); Bowden or Bothanden (St. Bothan’s valley), in Roxburghshire; Tenterden, anc. Theinwarden (the guarded valley of the thane or nobleman), in Kent; Howden (the haugr or mound (in the valley), in Yorkshire; Howdon, with the same meaning, in Northumberland; Otterden (the otter’s valley); Stagsden (of the stag); Micheldean (great valley); Rottingdean (the valley of Hrotan, a chief); Croxden (the valley of the cross).
DEOR (A.S.),
DYR (Scand.),
THIER (Ger.),