Sir,—Mr. Round (see vol. v. p. 282) claims “Port as an English word, in itself distinct from the Latin porta or portus;” later on (p. 283), “Port was in itself essentially an English word;” yet at p. 286 we read, “The English borrowed it ... after the settlement ... or before the settlement.” How can it be generically an English word, yet borrowed from Latin? There is lamentable confusion throughout this paper, truly distressing confusion, and the little bits of assertion and argument are so cut into slices and sandwiched between slips of quotation and extract, that it is like dissecting a Chinese puzzle to ramify its purport.
We have the words ‘castor,’ ‘port,’ ‘street,’ and ‘wall;’ now, if these words were English forms of some Teutonic roots, they will have analogues in the allied tongues: where are those analogues?
(1) Castor, Caster, Caister, Ceaster, Chester, are all from the Latin castrum, as muddled by alien tongues; yet, at p. 285, we are told that the “English would presumably have only met, not with the Latin castrum, but the Welsh caer or kair.” Why so? As a fact, the Welsh forms are not borrowed from Latin, but come from an independent Celtic root—as I think, direct from the Hindu gir, giri, and far older than Latin. We find Keir in Dumfriesshire; Cardiff in Glamorganshire; Carhaix, Kersanton, Kervrin, Kerentrec, Plessis-Kaer, all in Brittany; Caerleon and Caerwent, both famous places in Monmouthshire, pronounced, the former, Karleen, the latter, Kerwent, thus showing the affiliation with Armorican forms.
(2) Port: note that “port” is the equivalent of hithe or haven; thus we have Hythe in Kent, as a substitute for Portus Lemanis; at Oxford, the Port-meadow adjoins Hythe Bridge, and was evidently the town haven. The conditions are similar at Gloucester, where certain meadows, inundated at floods, are called the Portham; adjoining we find Dockham, and Dockham ditch, which is a reduplicated name. The port-walls of Chepstow are the harbour defences on the land side, it being the port or gate of Wye River. Newport, Mon., is in succession to Caerleon, the old port of River Usk. It follows, as a dead certainty, that the modern word port as used at London, where Port reeve was the precursor of our Lord Mayor, is in succession to the Latin portus, not introduced as a new English word, but preserved by Celto-Romans from Latin usage. Let Mr. Round study the course of those old English roadways throughout England, known as Portways, and called Roman; can the prefix be of English origin if it means “carry,” i.e., the portage of merchandise, from the Latin portare, to bear?
(3-4) Street and wall speak for themselves, and their plain facts will survive any amount of word-twisting.
A. H.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
The Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS. voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.
Books Received.
1. History of the House of Arundel. By J. P. Yeatman. Mitchell & Hughes. 1883.