And now to the point of the etymology of Totenais, as it stands in Domesday Book. We may, I think, safely dismiss the derivation suggested by Westcote, on the authority of Leland, and every thing like it derived from the French, as well as the unknown tongue which he adopts in "Dodonesse." That we are warranted in seeking to the Anglo-Saxon for etymology in this instance is shown by the fact, that the names of places in Devon are very generally derived from that language; e.g. taking a few only in the neighbourhood of Totnes—Berry, Buckyatt, Dartington, Halwell, Harberton, Hamstead, Hempstin, Stancombe.
First, of the termination ais or eis. The names of many places of inferior consequence in Devon end in hays, from the Ang.-Saxon heag, a hedge or inclosure; but this rarely, if ever, designates a town or a place beyond a farmstead, and seems to have been of later application as to a new location or subinfeudation; for it is never found in Domesday Book. In that ancient record the word aisse is often found alone, and often as a prefix and as a terminal; e.g., Aisbertone, Niresse, Aisseford, Aisselie, &c. This is the Ang.-Saxon Aesc, an ash; and it is uniformly so rendered in English: but it also means a ship or boat, as built of ash. Toten, the major of the name, is, I have no doubt, the genitive of Tohta, "dux, herzog," a leader or commander. Thus we have Tohtanoesc, the vessel of the leader, or the commander's ship,—commemorating the fact that the boat of some great invader was brought to land at this place.
S.S.S
Ædricus qui Signa fundebat (Vol. ii., p. 199), must surely have been a bell-founder: signum is a very common word, in mediæval writings, for a "bell."
D. ROCK
Fiz-gig (Vol. ii, p. 120).—I had expected that your Querist C.B. would have received an immediate reply to his Query as to the meaning of fiz-gig, because the word is in Johnson's Dictionary, where he may also see the line from Sandys' Job, in which it caught his attention.
You may as well, therefore, tell him two things,—that fiz-gig means a fish-cart and that Querists should abstain from soliciting your aid in all cases where a common dictionary would give them the information they want.
H.W.
Guineas (Vol. ii., p. 10.).—The coin named in the document quoted by A.J.H. is the Guiennois a gold piece struck at Guienne by Edward III., and also by his son the Black Prince. It is not likely that the Guiennois was the original of the name given to the new gold coin of Charles II., because it could have had no claim to preference beyond the Mouton, the Chaise, the Pavillon, or any other old Anglo-Gallic coin. I think we may rest contented with the statement of Leake (who wrote not much more than half a century after the event), and who says that the Guinea was so called from the gold of which it was made having been brought from Guinea by the African Company, whose stamp of an elephant was ordered to be impressed upon it.
J.C. Witton.