a wild animal—English, a deer; e.g. Deerhurst (deer’s thicket); Durham, in Gloucester (the dwelling of wild animals). For Durham on the Wear, v. HOLM. Tierbach, Tierhage (the brook and the enclosure of wild animals).
DESERT, or DISERT,
a term borrowed from the Lat. desertum, and applied by the Celts to the names of sequestered places chosen by the monks for devotion and retirement; Dyserth, in North Wales, and Dyzard, in Cornwall; e.g. Dysart, in Fife, formerly connected with the monastery of Culross, or Kirkcaldy—near Dysart is the cave of St. Serf; Dysertmore (the great desert), in Co. Kilkenny; Desertmartin in Londonderry, Desertserges in Cork (the retreats of St. Martin and St. Sergius). In Ireland the word is often corrupted to Ester or Isert—as in Isertkelly (Kelly’s retreat); Isertkeeran (St. Ciaran’s retreat).
DEUTSCH (Ger.),
from thiod, the people, a prefix used in Germany to distinguish any district or place from a foreign settlement of the same name. In Sclavonic districts it is opposed to the word Katholic, in connection with the form of religion practised by their inhabitants—as in Deutsch-hanmer (the Protestant village, opposed to Katholic-hanmer, belonging to the Catholic or Greek Church). In other cases it is opposed to Walsch (foreign—v. WALSCH), as in Deutsch-steinach and Walsh-steinach (the German and foreign towns on the Steinach, or stony water). The Romans employed the word Germania for Deutsch, which Professor Leo traces to a Celtic root gair-mean (one who cries out or shouts); e.g. Deutschen, in the Tyrol; Deutz, in Rhenish Prussia; Deutschendorf, in Hungary; Deutschenhausen, in Moravia, i.e. the dwellings of the Germans. The earliest name by which the Germans designated themselves seems to have been Tungri (the speakers). It was not till the seventeenth century that the word Dutch was restricted to the Low Germans. The French name for Germany is modernised from the Alemanni (a mixed race, and probably means other men, or foreigners).
DIEP, TIEF (Teut.),
DWFN (Cym.-Cel.),
deep; e.g. Deeping, Dibden, Dibdale (deep valley); Deptford (deep ford); Market-deeping (the market-town in the low meadow); Devonshire, Cel. Dwfnient (the deep valleys); Diepholz (deep wood); Dieppe, Scand. Duipa (the deep water), the name of the river upon which it was built; Abraham’s diep (Abraham’s hollow), in Holland; Diepenbeck (deep brook); Tiefenthal and Tiefengrund (deep valley); Teupitz (the deep water), a town in Prussia on a lake of this name; Defynock (a deep valley), in Wales.
DINAS, or DIN (Cym.-Cel.),
a fortified height, a city, cognate with the Gadhelic dun; e.g. Dinmore (the great fort), in Hereford; Dynevor, anc. Dinas-fawr (great fortress), in Carmarthen; Denbigh, Welsh Din-bach (little fort); Ruthin, in Co. Denbigh, corrupt. from Rhudd-din (red castle); Dinas Bran, a mountain and castle in Wales named after an ancient king named Bran-Dinas-Powys, corrupt. from Denes Powys, a mansion built by the Prince of Powys in honour of the lady whom he had married, whose name was Denis; Hawarden, i.e. fixed on a hill, den, in Flint; its ancient name was Penarth-Halawig (the headland above the salt marsh); Dinefwr (the fenced hill), an ancient castle in the vale of the R. Tywy; Tenby (Dane’s dwelling)—v. DAN; Welsh Denbych-y-Pysod, i.e. of the fishes—to distinguish from its namesake in North Wales; Tintern, corrupt. from Din-Teyrn (the king’s mount), in Wales; Dinan in France; Dinant in Belgium (the fortress on the water); Digne, anc. Dinia-Bodionticarium (the fort of the Bodiontici), in France; London, anc. Londinum (the fort on the marsh—lon, or perhaps on the grove—llwyn). Din sometimes takes the form of tin, as in Tintagel (St. Degla’s fort), in Cornwall; Tintern (the fort, din, of the prince, Welsh teyrn), in Monmouth.
DINKEL (Ger.),