prefixes with various meanings in Eng., Ger., and Scand. topography. Sometimes they mean holy, Ger. heilig, as in Heligoland (holy isle); Heilbron (holy well); Heligensteen (holy rock); Heilberg and Hallidon (holy hill); Heiligencreuz (the town of the holy cross), Hung. Nemet-keresztur (the grove of the cross); Heiligenhaven (holy harbour); Heiligenstadt (holy town); Halifax, in Yorkshire (holy face), is said to have been named from an image of John the Baptist, kept in a hermitage at the place; Hoxton, in Sussex, was originally Hageltoun (holy town), because it was there that St. Edmund suffered martyrdom. Sometimes, however, hell denotes a covered place, as in Helwell, in Devonshire (the covered well); sometimes it means clear, as in Hellebrunn (clear or bright fountain); Heilbronn, in Wurtemberg (fountain of health), named from a spring formerly used medicinally. Hellefors, a waterfall in Norway, and Hellgate, New York, seem to derive their names from a superstition connected with Hel, the goddess of the dead; Holyhead, in Wales, is in Welsh Pen-Caer-Gibi (the hill fort of St. Cybi, called holy in his honour); Holy Island, Lat. Insula-sancta, obtained its name from the monastery of St. Cuthbert—its more ancient name, Lindisfarne, is probably the ferry, fahr, of the brook Lindis, on the opposite shore; Holywell, in Flint, took its name from St. Winifred’s Well, celebrated for its miraculous cures—its Welsh name is Tref-fynnon (the town of the clear water); Holywood, Dumfriesshire, Cel. Der Congal (the oak grove of St. Congal).
HELLR (Scand.),
a cave into which the tide flows; e.g. Hellr-hals (the neck or strait of the cave); Heller-holm (the island of the cave); Hellersness (the headland of the caves).
HELY (Hung.),
a place; e.g. Vasarhely (the market-place); Varhely (the place of the fortress); Marosvasarhely (the market-place on the R. Maros), in Ger. Neumarkt; Vasarhely-hod-Mezö (the market-place of the beaver’s meadow); Szombathely (the place where the Saturday market is held, szombat); Csotortokhely (the Thursday market-place), Germanised Donners-markt; Udvarhely (court place); Szerdahely (Wednesday market-place), Vasar, Hung. (a market), from Turc. Bazar.
HEN (Cym.-Cel.),
old; e.g. Henly (the old place), on the Thames; Hentland, for Hen-llan (old church, now St. Asaph’s); Henlys (old palace): Hen-egglys (old church), in Anglesea.
HEN (Cym.-Cel.),
old, ancient; e.g. Henlys (the ancient hall).
HENGST (Teut.),