DICTIONARY OF PLACE-NAMES

GEOGRAPHICAL ETYMOLOGY

A DICTIONARY
OF
PLACE-NAMES

GIVING THEIR DERIVATIONS

By C. BLACKIE

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

By JOHN STUART BLACKIE

PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

THIRD EDITION, REVISED

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1887

PREFACE

The Introduction, by which the present work is ushered into public notice, renders any lengthened Preface on my part quite unnecessary. Yet I wish to say a few words with regard to the design and plan of this little volume.

The subject, though no doubt possessing a peculiar interest to the general reader, and especially to tourists in these travelling days, falls naturally under the head of historical and geographical instruction in schools; and for such use the book is, in the first place, specially intended.

When I was myself one of a class in this city where Geography and History were taught, no information connected with etymology was imparted to us. We learned, with more or less trouble and edification, the names of countries, towns, etc., by rote; but our teacher did not ask us who gave the names to these places, nor were we expected to inquire or to know if there was any connection between their names and their histories. Things are changed now; and I believe the first stimulus to an awakening interest in Geographical Etymology was given by the publication of the Rev. Isaac Taylor’s popular work, Words and Places. About ten years ago, I found that the best teachers in the English schools of Edinburgh did ask questions on this subject, and I discovered, at the same time, that a book specially bearing upon it was a desideratum in school literature. As no one better qualified came forward, I was induced to make the attempt; and I hope the following pages, the result of much research and in the face of no small discouragement, may prove useful to teachers, as well as to their pupils.

The Index at the end of the volume, although it contains many names not included in the body of the work, does by no means include all that I have given there. This did not seem necessary, because, the root words being alphabetically arranged, an intelligent teacher or pupil will easily find the key to the explanation of any special name by referring to the head under which it is naturally classed. I must, however, premise that, with regard to names derived from the Celtic languages, the root word is generally placed at the beginning of the name—that is, if it contain more than one syllable. This is the case with such vocables as pen, ben, dun, lis, rath, strath, etc.; e.g. Lismore, Benmore, Dungarvan, Strath-Allan. On the other hand, in names derived from the Teutonic or Scandinavian languages, the root word comes last, as will be found with regard to ton, dale, burg, berg, stadt, dorf, ford, etc.

The index, therefore, may be expected to include principally such names as, either through corruption or abbreviation, have materially changed their form, such as are formed from the simple root, like Fürth, Ennis, Delft, or such as contain more than one, as in Portrush, it being uncertain under which head I may have placed such names. Along with the root words, called by the Germans Grundwörter, I have given a number of defining words (Bestimmungswörter)—such adjectives as express variety in colour, form, size, etc.

It is to be regretted that many names have necessarily been omitted from ignorance or uncertainty with regard to their derivation. This is the case, unfortunately, with several well-known and important towns—Glasgow, Berlin, Berne, Madrid, Paisley, etc. With regard to these and many others, I shall be glad to receive reliable information.

And now it only remains for me to express my obligations to the gentlemen who have kindly assisted me in this work, premising that, in the departments which they have revised, the credit of success is due mainly to them; while I reserve to myself any blame which may be deservedly attached to failures or omissions. The Celtic portion of my proof-sheets has been revised by Dr. Skene, the well-known Celtic scholar of this city, and by Dr. Joyce, author of Irish Names of Places. I have also to thank the Rev. Isaac Taylor, author of Words and Places, for the help and encouragement which he has given me from time to time; and Mr. Paterson, author of the Magyars, for valuable information which I received from him regarding the topography of Hungary. I appreciate the assistance given me by these gentlemen the more, that it did not proceed from personal friendship, as I was an entire stranger to all of them. It was the kindness and courtesy of the stronger and more learned to one weaker and less gifted than themselves; and I beg they may receive my grateful thanks, along with the little volume which has been so much their debtor.

C. B.

Edinburgh, July 1887.

INTRODUCTION

Among the branches of human speculation that, in recent times, have walked out of the misty realm of conjecture into the firm land of science, and from the silent chamber of the student into the breezy fields of public life, there are few more interesting than Etymology. For as words are the common counters, or coins rather, with which we mark our points in all the business and all the sport of life, any man whose curiosity has not been blunted by familiarity, will naturally find a pleasure in understanding what the image and superscription on these markers mean; and amongst words there are none that so powerfully stimulate this curiosity as the names of persons and places. About these the intelligent interest of young persons is often prominently manifested; and it is a sad thing when parents or teachers, who should be in a position to gratify this interest, are obliged to waive an eager intelligence aside, and by repeated negations to repel the curiosity which they ought to have encouraged. Geography indeed, a subject full of interest to the young mind, has too often been taught in such a way as neither to delight the imagination with vivid pictures, nor to stimulate inquiry by a frequent reference to the history of names; and this is an evil which, if found to a certain extent in all countries, is particularly rank in Great Britain, where the language of the country is composed of fragments of half a dozen languages, which only the learned understand, and which, to the ear of the many, have no more significance than if they were Hebrew or Coptic. The composite structure of our English speech, in fact, tends to conceal from us the natural organism of language; so that in our case, it requires a special training to make us fully aware of the great truth announced by Horne Tooke, that “in language there is nothing arbitrary.” Nevertheless, the curiosity about the meaning of words, though seldom cherished, is not easily extinguished; and, in this age of locomotion, there are few scraps of information more grateful to the intelligent tourist than those which relate to the significance of topographical names. When, for instance, the London holiday-maker, in his trip to the West Highlands, setting foot in one of Mr. Hutchinson’s steamboats at Oban, on his way to the historic horrors of Glencoe, finds on his larboard side a long, low island, green and treeless, called Lismore, he will be pleased, no doubt, at first by simply hearing so euphonious a word in a language that he had been taught to believe was harsh and barbarous, but will be transported into an altogether different region of intelligent delight when he is made to understand that this island is wholly composed of a vein of limestone, found only here in the midst of a wide granitic region skirted with trap; that, by virtue of this limestone, the island, though treeless, is more fertile than the surrounding districts; and that for this reason it has received the Celtic designation of Liosmor, or the great garden. Connected with this etymology, not only is the topographical name made to speak reasonably to a reasonable being, but it contains in its bosom a geological fact, and an œconomical issue, bound together by a bond of association the most natural and the most permanent. The pleasant nature of the intelligence thus awakened leads us naturally to lament that, except to those who are born in Celtic districts and speak the Celtic language, the significance of so many of our most common topographical names in the most interesting districts is practically lost; and it deserves consideration whether, in our English and classical schools, so much at least of the original speech of the country should not be taught as would enable the intelligent student to know the meaning of the local names, to whose parrot-like repetition he must otherwise be condemned.

Some of the Celtic words habitually used in the designation of places—such as Ben, Glen, Strath, and Loch—have been incorporated into the common English tongue; and the addition to this stock is not very large, which would enable an intelligent traveller to hang the points of his picturesque tour on a philological peg that would most materially insure both their distinctness and their permanence. Nay, more; the germ of appreciation thus begotten might lead a sympathetic nature easily into some more serious occupation with the old language of our country; and this might lead to a discovery full of pleasant surprise, that in the domain of words, as of physical growth, the brown moors, when examined, often produce flowers of the most choice beauty with which the flush of the most cultivated gardens cannot compete, and that a venerable branch of the old Indo-European family of languages, generally ignored as rude and unlettered, is rich in a popular poetry, as fervid in passion, and as healthy in hue, as anything that Homer or Hesiod ever sang.

In the realm of etymology, as everybody now knows, before Bopp and Grimm, and other great scholars, laid the sure foundation of comparative philology on the principles of a philosophy, as all true philosophy is, at once inductive and deductive, the license of conjecture played a mad part—a part, it is only too evident, not yet fully played out—and specially raised such a glamour of illusion about topographical etymology, that the theme became disgusting to all sober-minded thinkers, or ludicrous, as the humour might be. We must, therefore, approach this subject with a more than common degree of caution, anxious rather to be instructed in what is solid, than to be amazed with what is ingenious. It shall be our endeavour to proceed step by step in this matter—patiently, as with the knowledge that our foot is on the brink of boggy ground, starting from obvious principles given by the constitution of the human mind, and confirmed by a large induction of unquestioned facts.

The most natural and obvious reason for naming a place so-and-so would be to express the nature of the situation by its most striking features, with the double view of impressing its character on the memory, and conveying to persons who had not seen it an idea of its peculiarity; i.e. the most obvious and natural topographical names are such as contain condensed descriptions or rude verbal pictures of the object. Thus the notion of the highest mountain in a district may be broadly conveyed by simply calling it the big mount, or, according to the order of words current in the Celtic languages, mount big; which is exactly what we find in Benmore, from mor, big, the name of several of the highest mountains in the Highlands of Scotland, specially of one in the south of Perthshire, near Killin, of another in Mull, the highest trap mountain in Scotland, and a third in Assynt. Again, to mark the very prominent feature of mountains elevated considerably above the normal height, that they are covered with snow all the year round, we find Lebanon, in the north of Palestine, named from the Hebrew leban, white; Mont Blanc, in Switzerland, in the same way from an old Teutonic word signifying the same thing, which found its way into Italian and the other Romanesque languages, fairly ousting the Latin albus; Olympus, from the Greek λάμπομαι, to shine; the Schneekoppe, in Silesia, from schnee, snow, and koppe, what we call kip in the Lowland topography of Scotland, i.e. a pointed hill, the same radically as the Latin caput, the head. In the same fashion one of the modern names of the ancient Mount Hermon is Jebel-eth-Thelj, the snowy mountain, just as the Himalayas receive their names from the Sanscrit haima = Greek χεîμα, winter.

The most obvious characteristic of any place, whether mountain or plain or valley, would be its shape and size, its relative situation high or low, behind or in the front, its colour, the kind of rock or soil of which it is composed, the climate which it enjoys, the vegetation in which it abounds, and the animals by which it is frequented. Let us take a few familiar examples of each of these cases; and, if we deal more largely in illustrations from the Scottish Highlands than from other parts of the world, it is for three sufficient reasons—because these regions are annually visited by the greatest number of tourists; because, from the general neglect of the Celtic languages, they stand most in need of interpretation; and because they are most familiar—not from book-knowledge only, but by actual inspection—to the present writer. In the matter of size, the tourist will find at Glenelg (from sealg, to hunt), in Inverness-shire, opposite Skye, where there are two well-preserved circular forts, the twin designations of Glenmore and Glenbeg; that is, Glenbig and Glenlittle—a contrast constantly occurring in the Highlands; the word beag, pronounced vulgarly in Argyleshire peek, signifying little, evidently the same as μικ in the Greek μικρός. As to relative situation, the root ard, in Latin arduus, frequently occurs; not, however, to express any very high mountain, but either a bluff fronting the sea, as in Ardnamorchuan (the rise of the great ocean, cuan, perhaps from ὼκεανός), or more frequently a slight elevation on the shore of a lake, what they call in England a rise, as in Ardlui, near the head of Loch Lomond, Ardvoirlich, and many others. The word lui, Gaelic laogh—the gh being silent, as in the English sigh—signifies a calf or a fawn, and gives name to the lofty mountain which the tourist sees on his right hand as he winds up where the railway is now being constructed from Dalmally to Tyndrum. Another frequent root to mark relative situation is CUL, behind, Latin culus, French cul, a word which gives name to a whole parish in Aberdeenshire, to the famous historical site of Culross, the reputed birthplace of St. Kentigern, and many others. This word means simply behind the headland, as does also Culchenzie (from ceann, the head), at the entrance to Loch Leven and Glencoe, which the tourist looks on with interest, as for two years the summer residence of the noble-minded Celtic evangelist Dr. Norman Macleod. But the most common root, marking relative situation, which the wanderer through Celtic countries encounters is inver, meaning below, or the bottom of a stream, of which aber is only a syncopated form, a variation which, small as it appears, has given rise to large controversy and no small shedding of ink among bellicose antiquarians. For it required only a superficial glance to observe that while Abers are scattered freely over Wales, they appear scantly in Scotland, and there with special prevalence only in the east and south-east of the Grampians—as in Aberdeen, Aberdour, Aberlemno in Fife, and others. On this the eager genius of archæological discovery, ever ready to poise a pyramid on its apex, forthwith raised the theory, that the district of Scotland where the Abers prevailed had been originally peopled by Celts of the Cymric or Welsh type, while the region of Invers marked out the ancient seats of the pure Caledonian Celts. But this theory, which gave great offence to some fervid Highlanders, so far as it stood on this argument, fell to the ground the moment that some more cool observer put his finger on half a dozen or a whole dozen of Invers, in perfect agreement hobnobbing with the Abers, not far south of Aberdeen; while, on the other hand, a zealous Highland colonel, now departed to a more peaceful sphere, pointed out several Abers straggling far west and north-west into the region of the Caledonian Canal and beyond it. But these slippery points are wisely avoided; and there can be no doubt, on the general principle, that relative situation has everywhere played a prominent part in the terminology of districts. Northumberland and Sutherland, and Cape Deas or Cape South, in Cantire, are familiar illustrations of this principle of nomenclature. In such cases the name, of course, always indicates by what parties it was imposed; Sutherland, or Southern-land, having received this appellation from the Orkney men, who lived to the north of the Pentland Firth.

The next element that claims mention is Colour. In this domain the most striking contrasts are black and white. In ancient Greece, a common name for rivers was Melas, or Black-water; one of which, that which flows into the Malaic Gulf, has translated itself into modern Greek as Mauro-nero, μαûρο in the popular dialect having supplanted the classical μἐλας; and νἐρο, as old, no doubt, as Nereus and the Nereids, having come into its pre-Homeric rights and driven out the usurping ὕδωρ. In the Scottish Highlands, dubh, black or dark, plays, as might be expected, a great figure in topographical nomenclature; of this let Benmuic Dubh, or the mount of the black sow, familiar to many a Braemar deer-stalker, serve as an example; while Cairngorm, the cradle of many a golden-gleaming gem, stands with its dark blue (gorm) cap immediately opposite, and recalls to the classical fancy its etymological congeners in the Cyanean rocks, so famous in early Greek fable. Of the contrasted epithet white, Leucadia (λευκός), where the poetess Sappho is famed to have made her erotic leap, is a familiar example. In the Highlands, ban (fair), or geal (white), is much less familiar in topographical nomenclature than dubh; Buidhe, on the other hand (yellow), corresponding to the ξανθός of the Greeks, is extremely common, as in Lochbuie at the south-east corner of Mull, one of the few remaining scattered links of the possessions of the Macleans, once so mighty and latterly so foolish, in those parts. Among other colours, glas (gray) is very common; so is dearg (red), from the colour of the rock, as in one of those splendid peaks that shoot up behind the slate quarries at the west end of Glencoe. Breac, also (spotted or brindled), is by no means uncommon, as in Ben Vrackie, prominent behind Pitlochrie, in Perthshire, in which word the initial b has been softened into a v by the law of aspiration peculiar to the Celtic languages.

There remain the two points of climate and vegetation, of which a few examples will suffice. In Sicily, the town of Selinus, whose magnificence remains preserved in indelible traces upon the soil, took its name from the wild parsley, σἐλινον, which grew plentifully on the ground, and which appears on the coins of the city. In the Scottish Highlands, no local name is more common than that which is familiarly known as the designation of one of the most genuine of the old Celtic chiefs, the head of the clan Macpherson—we mean the word Cluny (Gaelic cluain; possibly only a variety of grün, green), which signifies simply a green meadow, a vision often very delightful to a pedestrian after a long day’s tramp across brown brae and gray fell in those parts. The abundance of oak in ancient Celtic regions, where it is not so common now, is indicated by the frequency of the termination darach (from which Derry, in Ireland, is corrupted; Greek δρûς and δόρυ, as in the designation of one of the Campbells in Argyle, Auchin-darroch, i.e. oak-field. The pine, giubhas, appears in Kingussie, pine-end, in the midst of that breezy open space which spreads out to the north-west of the Braemar Grampians. In Beith and Aultbea (birch-brook) we have beath, Latin betula, a birch-tree; elm and ash are rare; heather, fraoch, especially in the designation of islands, as Eileanfraoch, in Loch Awe, and another in the Sound of Kerrera, close by Oban. Of climate we find traces in Auchnasheen (sian), on the open blasty road between Dingwall and Janetown, signifying the field of wind and rain; in Mealfourvonie, the broad hill of the frosty moor, composed of the three roots maol (broad and bald), fuar (cold), and mhonaid (upland); in Balfour (cold town), and in the remarkable mountain in Assynt called Canisp, which appears to be a corruption of Ceann-uisge, or Rainy-head.

Lastly, of animals: madadh, a fox, appears in Lochmaddy and Ardmaddy; coin, of a dog, in Achnachoin, or Dog’s-field, one of the three bloody spots that mark the butchery of the false Campbell in Glencoe; and, throwing our glance back two thousand years, in Cynoscephalæ, or the Dog’s-head, in Thessaly, where the sturdy Macedonian power at last bowed in submission before the proud swoop of the Roman eagles; the familiar cow (baa, Lat. bos) gives its name to that fair loch, which sleeps so quietly in the bosom of beautiful Mull; while the goat, famous also in the sad history of Athenian decline at Aigospotami, or the Goat’s-river, gives its name to the steepy heights of Ardgour (from gobhar, Lat. caper), a fragment of the old inheritance of the Macleans, which rise up before the traveller so majestically as he steams northward from Ballachulish to Fort William and Banavie.

In a country composed almost entirely of mountain ridges, with intervening hollows of various kinds, it is only natural that the variety in the scenery, produced by the various slopes and aspects of the elevated ground, should give rise to a descriptive nomenclature of corresponding variety. This is especially remarkable in Gaelic; and the tourist in the Scottish Highlands will not travel far without meeting, in addition to the Ben and Ard already mentioned, the following specific designations:—

In the Lowlands, pen, law, fell, bræ, hope, rise, edge, indicate similar varieties. Among these pen, as distinguished from the northern ben, evidently points to a Welsh original. Hope is a curious word, which a south-country gentleman once defined to me as “the point of the low land mounting the hill whence the top can be seen.” Of course, if this be true, it means an elevation not very far removed from the level ground, because, as every hill-climber knows, the top of a huge eminence ceases to be visible the moment you get beyond what the Greeks call the “fore-feet” of the mountain.

In the designation of the intervening hollows, or low land, the variety of expression is naturally less striking. Glen serves for almost all varieties of a narrow Highland valley. A very narrow rent or fissured gorge is called a glachd. The English word dale, in Gaelic dail, means in that language simply a field, or flat stretch of land at the bottom of the hills. It is to be noted, however, that this word is both Celtic and Teutonic; but, in topographical etymology, with a difference distinctly indicative of a twofold origin. In an inland locality where the Scandinavians never penetrated, Dal is always prefixed to the other element of the designation, as in Dalwhinnie, Dalnacardoch, and Dalnaspidal, the field of meeting, the field of the smithy, and the field of the hospital, all in succession within a short distance on the road between the Spey uplands and Blair Athol. On the other hand, a postfixed dale, as in Borrowdale, Easdale, and not a few others, indicates a Saxon or Norse origin. The word den or dean, as in the Dean Bridge, Edinburgh, and the Den Burn, Aberdeen, is Anglo-Saxon denn, and appears in the English Tenterden, and some others. Another Celtic name for field is ach, the Latin ag-er, which appears in a number of Highland places, as in Ach-na-cloiche (stone field), in Argyleshire. A hollow surrounded by mountains is called by the well-known name of LAGGAN, which is properly a diminutive from lag, in Greek λάκκος, in Latin lacus, a hollow filled with water, and in German a mere loch, or hole, into which a mouse might creep. A special kind of hollow, lying between the outstretched arms of a big Ben, and opening at one end into the vale below, is called in Gaelic coire, literally a cauldron—a word which the genius of Walter Scott has made a permanent possession of the English language. In England such mountain hollows are often denominated combs, as in Addiscombe, Ashcomb, a venerable old British word of uncorrupted Cornish descent, and which, so far as I know, does not appear in Scottish topography, unless it be in Cummertrees (on the shore, traigh), near Annan, and Cumbernauld; but this I am not able to verify by local knowledge. The word cumar appears in O’Reilly’s Irish dictionary as “the bed of a large river or a narrow sea, a hollow generally,” but seems quite obsolete in the spoken Gaelic of to-day. The termination holm is well-known both in English and Scotch names, and proclaims itself as characteristically Scandinavian, in the beautiful metropolis of the Swedes. In Gaelic districts a holm, that is, a low watery meadow, is generally called a lon, a word which has retained its place in Scotch as loan—Loaning, Loanhead, Loanend, and is fundamentally identical with the English lane and lawn. The varieties of sea-coast are expressed by the words traigh, cladach, camus, corran, wick, loch, rutha, ross, caolas, stron, salen, among which, in passing, we may specially note camus, from the root cam, Greek κάμπτω, to bend: hence Morecambe Bay, near Lancaster, signifies the great bend; corran, a scythe, evidently allied to the Latin curvus, and used in the Highlands to denote any crescent-shaped shore, as at Corranferry, Ardgour, in Lochfinne; wick, a familiar Scandinavian word signifying a bay, and which, with the Gaelic article prefixed, seems to have blundered itself into NIGG at Aberdeen, and near Fearn in Ross-shire; caolas, a strait, combining etymologically the very distant and very different localities of Calais and Ballachulish; stron or sron, a nose, which lends its name to a parish near the end of Loch Sunart, in Morvern, and thence to a famous mineral found in its vicinity; lastly, salen is nothing but salt, and appears in the south of Ireland and the north-west of Scotland, under the slightly varied forms of Kinsale and Kintail, both of which words signify the head of the salt water; for Irish and Gaelic are only one language with a slightly different spelling here and there, and a sprinkling of peculiar words now and then.

The only other features of natural scenery that play a noticeable part in topographical etymology are the rivers, lakes, wells, and waterfalls; and they need not detain us long. The Gaelic uisge, water, of which the Latin aqua is an abraded form, appears in the names of Scottish rivers as Esk, and of Welsh rivers as Usc. The familiar English Avon is the Gaelic amhainn, evidently softened down by aspiration from the Latin amnis. This avon often appears at the end of river names curtailed, as in Garonne, the rough river, from the Gaelic root garbh, rough. The Don, so common as a river name from the Black Sea to Aberdeen, means either the deep river or the brown river. A small river, brook in English, gives name to not a few places and persons. In the Scottish Highlands, and in those parts of the Lowlands originally inhabited by the Celtic race, the word alt performs the same functions. Loch, in Gaelic, answering to the English mere (Latin mare), appears most commonly in the Highlands, as Kinloch, i.e. the town or house at the head of the lake; and tobar, a well, frequently, as in Holywell, connected with a certain religious sanctity, appears in Tobermory, i.e. the well of the Virgin Mary, one of the most beautiful quiet bits of bay scenery in Great Britain. Of places named from waterfalls (eas, from esk), a significant element in Highland scenery, Inverness, and Moness near Aberfeldy, are the most notable, the one signifying “the town at the bottom of the river, which flows from the lake where there is the great waterfall,” i.e. Foyers; and the other, “the waterfall of the moorish uplands,” which every one understands who walks up to it.

So much for the features of unappropriated nature, stereotyped, as it were, at once and for ever, in the old names of local scenery. But as into a landscape an artist will inoculate his sentiment and symbolise his fancy, so on the face of the earth men are fond to stamp the trace of their habitation and their history. Under this influence the nomenclature of topography becomes at once changed from a picture of natural scenery to a record of human fortunes. And in this department it is plain that the less varied and striking the features of nature, the greater the necessity of marking places by the artificial differentiation produced by the presence of human dwellings. Hence, in the flat, monotonous plains of North Germany, the abundance of places ending in hausen and heim, which are only the Saxon forms of our English house and home. Of the termination hausen, Sachsenhausen, the home of the Saxons, and Frankenhausen, the home of the Franks, are amongst the most notable examples. Heim is pleasantly associated with refreshing draughts in Hochheim, i.e. high home, on the north bank of the Rhine a little below Mainz, whence a sharp, clear wine being imported, with the loss of the second syllable, and the transformation of ch into k, produced the familiar hock. This heim in a thousand places of England becomes ham, but in Scotland, where the Celtic element prevails, appears only rarely in the south-east and near the English border, as in Coldingham and Ednam—the birthplace of the poet Thomson—contracted from Edenham. Another root very widely expressive of human habitation, under the varying forms of beth, bo, and by, is scattered freely from the banks of Jordan to the islands of the Hebrides in the north-west of Scotland. First under this head we have the great army of Hebrew beths, not a few of which are familiar to our ear from the cherished teachings of early childhood, as—Bethabara, the house of the ferry; Bethany, the house of dates; Bethaven, the house of naughtiness; Bethcar, the house of lambs; Bethdagon, the house of the fish-god Dagon; Bethel, the house of God; Bethshemesh, the house of the sun (like the Greek Heliopolis); and a score of others. Bo is the strictly Danish form of the root, at least in the dictionary, where the verb boe, to dwell, also appears. Examples of this are found in Skibo, in Ross-shire, and Buness, at the extreme end of Unst, the seat of the Edmonstones, a family well known in the annals of Shetland literature; but more generally, in practice, it takes the softened form of by, as in hundreds of local designations in England, specially in Lincolnshire, where the Danes were for a long time at home. Near the English border, as in Lockerby, this same termination appears; otherwise in Scotland it is rare. In the Sclavonic towns of Mecklenburg and Prussia, it takes the form of bus, as in Pybus, while in Cornish it is bos, which is a later form of bod (German bude, English booth, Scotch bothy), which stands out prominently in Bodmin and other towns, not only in Cornwall, but in Wales. The termination bus appears likewise in not a few local designations in the island of Islay, where the Danes had many settlements. In Skye it appears as bost, as in Skeabost, one of the oldest seats of the Macdonalds. The other Saxon or Scandinavian terms frequently met with throughout England and in the north-east of Scotland are—ton, setter or ster, stead, stow, stoke, hay, park, worth, bury, thorp, toft, thwaite. In Germany, besides heim and hausen, as already mentioned, we have the English hay, under the form hagen, a fence; and thorp under the form dorf, a village; and worth under the forms worth and werth, which are merely variations of the Greek χόρτος, English yard, and the Sclavonic gard and gorod, and the Celtic garad, the familiar word in the Highlands for a stone wall or dyke. In Germany, also, weiler, from weilen, to dwell, and leben, to live, are thickly sprinkled; hof, also, is extremely common, signifying a court or yard—a suffix which the French, in that part of Germany which they stole from the Empire, turned into court or ville, as in Thionville from Diedenhofen.

So much for the Teutonic part of this branch of topographical designation. In the Highlands tigh and bail are the commonest words to denote a human dwelling, the one manifestly an aspirated form of the Latin tignum (Greek στἐγος, German dach), and the other as plainly identical with the πόλις which appears in Sebastopol, and not a few cities, both ancient and modern, where Greek influence or Greek affectation prevailed. With regard to bal, it is noticeable that in Ireland it generally takes the form of bally, which is the full form of the word in Gaelic also, baile, there being no final mute vowels in that language; but in composition for topographical use final e is dropped, as in Balmoral, the majestic town or house, from morail, magnificent, a very apt designation for a royal residence, by whatever prophetic charm it came to be so named before her present Majesty learned the healthy habit of breathing pure Highland air amid the fragrant birches and clear waters of Deeside. Tigh, though less common than bal, is not at all unfrequent in the mountains; and tourists in the West Highlands are sure to encounter two of the most notable between Loch Lomond and Oban. The first, Tyndrum, the house on the ridge, at the point where the ascent ceases as you cross from Killin to Dalmally; and the other Taynuilt, or the house of the brook, in Scotch burnhouse, beyond Ben Cruachan, where the road begins to wend through the rich old copsewood towards Oban. I remember also a curious instance of the word tigh in a local designation, half-way between Inveraray and Loch Awe. In that district a little farmhouse on the right of the road is called Tighnafead, i.e. whistle-house (fead, a whistle, Latin fides), which set my philological fancy immediately on the imagination that this exposed place was so called from some peculiar whistling of the blast down from the hills immediately behind; but such imaginations are very unsafe; for the fact turned out to be, if somewhat less poetical, certainly much more comfortable, that this house of call, in times within memory, stood at a greater distance from the road than it now does, which caused the traveller, when he came down the descent on a cold night, sharp-set for a glass of strong whisky, to make his presence and his wish known by a shrill whistle across the hollow.

So much for tigh. The only other remark that I would make here is, that the word clachan, so well known from Scott’s Clachan of Aberfoyle, does not properly mean a village, as Lowlanders are apt to imagine, but only a churchyard, or, by metonymy, a church—as the common phrase used by the natives, Di domhnaich dol do’n chlachan, “going to church on Sunday,” sufficiently proves—the word properly meaning only the stones in the churchyard, which mark the resting-place of the dead; and if the word is ever used for a village, it is only by transference to signify the village in which the parish church is, and the parish churchyard.

But it is not only the dwellings of men, but their actions, that make places interesting; and as the march of events in great historical movements generally follows the march of armies, it follows that camps and battle-fields and military settlements will naturally have left strong traces in the topography of every country where human beings dwell. And accordingly we find that the chester and the caster, added as a generic term to so many English towns, are simply the sites of ancient Roman castra or camps; while Cologne, on the Rhine, marks one of the most prosperous of their settlements in Germany. Curiously analogous to this is the Cöln, a well-known quarter of Berlin, on the Spree, where the German emperors first planted a Teutonic colony in the midst of a Sclavonic population. In the solemn march of Ossianic poetry, the word blar generally signifies a field of battle; but, as this word properly signifies only a large field or open space, we have no right to say that such names as Blair Athol and Blairgowrie have anything to do with the memory of sanguinary collisions. Alexandria, in Egypt, is one of the few remaining places of note that took their name from the brilliant Macedonian Helleniser of the East. Alexandria, in the vale of Leven, in Dumbartonshire, tells of the family of Smollett, well known in the annals of Scottish literary genius, and still, by their residence, adding a grace to one of the most beautiful districts of lake scenery in the world. Adrianople stereotypes the memory of one of the most notable of the Roman emperors, who deemed it his privilege and pleasure to visit the extremest limits of his vast dominions, and leave some beneficial traces of his kingship there. The name Petersburg, whose Teutonic character it is impossible to ignore, indicates the civilisation of a Sclavonic country by an emperor whose early training was received from a people of German blood and breed; while Constantinople recalls the momentous change which took place in the centre of gravity of the European world, when the declining empire of the Roman Cæsars was about to become Greek in its principal site, as it had long been in its dominant culture. The streets of great cities, as one may see prominently in Paris, in their designations often contain a register of the most striking events of their national history. Genuine names of streets in old cities are a historical growth and an anecdotal record, which only require the pen of a cunning writer to make them as attractive as a good novel. London, in this view, is particularly interesting; and Emerson, I recollect, in his book, How the Great City grew (London, 1862), tells an amusing story about the great fire in London, which certain pious persons observed to have commenced at a street called Pudding Lane, and ended at a place called Pye Corner, in memory of which they caused the figure of a fat boy to be put up at Smithfield, with the inscription on his stomach, “This boy is in memory put up for the late fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666.” Many a dark and odorous close in Old Edinburgh also, to men who, like the late Robert Chambers, could read stones with knowing eyes, is eloquent with those tales of Celtic adventure and Saxon determination which make the history of Scotland so full of dramatic interest; while, on the other hand, the flunkeyism of the persons who, to tickle the lowest type of aristocratic snobbery, baptized certain streets of New Edinburgh with Buckingham Terrace, Belgrave Crescent, Grosvenor Street, and such like apish mimicry of metropolitan West Endism, stinks in the nostrils and requires no comment. But not only to grimy streets of reeking towns, but to the broad track of the march of the great lines of the earth’s surface, there is attached a nomenclature which tells the history of the adventurous captain, or the courageous commander, who first redeemed these regions from the dim limbo of the unknown, and brought them into the distinct arena of cognisable and manageable facts. In the frosty bounds of the far North-West, the names of Mackenzie, Maclintock, and Maclure proclaim the heroic daring that belongs so characteristically to the Celtic blood in Scotland. But it is in the moral triumphs of religion, which works by faith in what is noble, love of what is good, and reverence for what is great, that the influence of history over topographical nomenclature is most largely traced. In ancient Greece, the genial piety which worshipped its fairest Avatar in the favourite sun-god Apollo, stamped its devotion on the name of Apollonia, on the Ionian Sea, and other towns whose name was legion. In Cornwall, almost every parish is named after some saintly apostle, who, in days of savage wildness and wastefulness, had brought light and peace and humanity into these remote regions. In the Highlands of Scotland, the Kilbrides (kill from cella, a shrine), Kilmartins, Kilmarnocks, and Kilmallies everywhere attest the grateful piety of the forefathers of the Celtic race in days which, if more dark, were certainly not more cold than the times in which we now live. In the Orkneys the civilising influence of the clergy, or, in some cases, no doubt, their love for pious seclusion, is frequently marked by the Papas or priests’ islands. In Germany, Munich or Monacum, which shows a monk in its coat-of-arms, has retained to the present day the zeal for sacerdotal sanctitude from which it took its name; and the same must be said of Muenster, in Westphalia (from μοναστῆρι, in modern Greek a cathedral, English minster), the metropolis of Ultramontane polity and priestly pretension in Northern Germany.

But it is not only in commemorating, like coins, special historical events, that local names act as an important adjunct to written records; they give likewise the clue to great ethnological facts and movements of which written history preserves no trace. In this respect topographical etymology presents a striking analogy to geology; for, as the science of the constitution of the earth’s crust reveals a fossilised history of life in significant succession, long antecedent to the earliest action of the human mind on the objects of terrestrial nature, so the science of language to the practised eye discloses a succession of races in regions where no other sign of their existence remains. If it were doubted, for instance, whether at any period the Lowlands of Scotland had been possessed by a Celtic race, and asserted roundly that from the earliest times the plains had been inhabited by a people of Teutonic blood, and only the mountain district to the west and north-west was the stronghold of the Celt, the obvious names of not a few localities in the east and south-east of Scotland would present an impassable bar to the acceptance of any such dogma. One striking instance of this occurs in Haddingtonshire, where a parish is now called Garavalt—by the very same appellation as a well-known waterfall near Braemar, in the hunting forest of the late Prince Consort; and with the same propriety in both cases, for the word in Gaelic signifies a rough brook, and such a brook is the most striking characteristic of both districts. Cases of this kind clearly indicate the vanishing of an original Celtic people from districts now essentially Teutonic both in speech and character. The presence of a great Sclavonic people in Northern Germany, and of an extensive Sclavonic immigration into Greece in mediæval times, is attested with the amplest certitude in the same way. A regular fringe of Scandinavian names along the north and north-west coast of Scotland would, to the present hour, attest most indubitably the fact of a Norse dominion in those quarters operating for centuries, even had Haco and the battle of Largs been swept altogether from the record of history and from the living tradition of the people. To every man who has been in Norway, Laxfiord, in West Ross-shire, a stream well known to salmon-fishers, carries this Scandinavian story on its face; and no man who has walked the streets of Copenhagen will have any difficulty, when he sails into the beautiful bay of Portree, in knowing the meaning of the great cliff called the Storr, which he sees along the coast a little towards the north; for this means simply the great cliff, storr being the familiar Danish for great, as mor is the Gaelic. Ethnological maps may in this way be constructed exactly in the same fashion as geological; and the sketch of one such for Great Britain the reader will find in Mr. Taylor’s well-known work on Names and Places.

With regard to the law of succession in these ethnological strata, as indicated by topographical nomenclature, the following three propositions may be safely laid down:—1. The names of great objects of natural scenery, particularly of mountains and rivers, will generally be significant in the language of the people who were the original inhabitants of the country. 2. Names of places in the most open and accessible districts of a country will be older than similar names in parts which are more difficult of access; but—3, these very places being most exposed to foreign invasion, are apt to invite an adventurous enemy, whose settlement in the conquered country is generally accompanied with a partial, sometimes with a very considerable, change of local nomenclature.

In reference to this change of population, Mr. Taylor in one place uses the significant phrase, “The hills contain the ethnological sweepings of the plains.” Very true; but the effect of this on the ethnological character of the population of the places is various, and in the application requires much caution. It is right, for instance, to say generally that the Celtic language has everywhere in Europe retreated from the plains into the mountainous districts; but the people often still remain where the language has retreated, as the examination of any directory in many a district of Scotland, where only English is now spoken, will largely show. In Greece, in the same way, many districts present only Greek and Sclavonic names of places, where the population, within recent memory, is certainly Albanian. Inquiries of this nature always require no less caution than learning; otherwise, as Mr. Skene observes, what might have been, properly conducted, an all-important element in fixing the ethnology of any country, becomes, in rash hands and with hot heads, a delusion and a snare.[1]

But the science of language, when wisely conducted, not only presents an interesting analogy to geological stratification; it sometimes goes further, and bears direct witness to important geological changes as conclusive as any evidence derived from the existing conformation of the earth’s crust. How this comes to pass may easily be shown by a few familiar examples. The words wold and weald originally meant wood and forest, as the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary and the living use of the German language—wald—alike declare; but the wolds at present known in Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, and other parts of England, are generally bare and treeless, and in bad weather very cheerless places indeed. If, then, “there is nothing arbitrary in language,” and all local names tell an historical tale, it is certain that, at the time when those names were imposed, these same sites were part of an immense forest. The geologist, when, in the far-stretching bogs east of Glencoe, and near Kinloch Ewe, and in many other places of Scotland, he calls attention to the fact of layers of gigantic trees lying now deeply embedded under the peat, adduces an argument with regard to the primitive vegetation of our part of the world not a whit more convincing. The same fact of a lost vegetation is revealed in not a few places of England which end in the old word hurst, signifying a forest. Again, there is a large family of places in and about the Harz Mountains, in Germany, ending in ode, as Osterode, Hasselrode, Werningerode, and so forth. Now most of these places, as specially Hasselrode, are now remarkably free from those leagues of leafy luxuriance that give such a marked character to the scenery of that mountain district. It is certain, however, that they were at one time in the centre of an immense forest; for the word rode, radically the same as our rid, and perhaps the Welsh rhydd, Gaelic reidh, simply means “to make clear” or “clean,” and teaches that the forest in that part had been cleared for human habitation.

Once more: it is a well-known fact in geology that the border limit between sea and land is constantly changing, the briny element in some cliffy places, as to the north of Hull, systematically undermining the land, and stealing away the farmer’s acreage inch by inch and foot by foot; while in other places, from the conjoint action of river deposits and tidal currents, large tracts of what was once a sea-bottom are added to the land. The geological proof of this is open often to the most superficial observer; but the philological proof, when you once hold the key of it, is no less patent. In the Danish language—which is a sort of half-way house between high German and English—the word oe signifies an island. This oe, in the shape of ay, ea, ey, or y, appears everywhere on the British coast, particularly in the West Highlands, as in Colonsay, Torosay, Oransay, and in Orkney; and if there be any locality near the sea wearing this termination, not now surrounded by water, the conclusion is quite certain, on philological grounds, that it once was so. Here the London man will at once think on Bermondsey and Chelsea, and he will think rightly; but he must not be hasty to draw Stepney under the conditions of the same category, for the EY in that word, if I am rightly informed, is a corruption from hithe, a well-known Anglo-Saxon and good old English term signifying a haven; and generally, in all questions of topographical etymology, there is a risk of error where the old spelling of the word is not confronted with the form which, by the attritions and abrasions of time, it may have assumed.

These observations, which at the request of the author of the following pages I have hastily set down, will be sufficient to indicate the spirit in which the study of topographical etymology ought to be pursued. Of course, I have no share in the praise which belongs to the successful execution of so laborious an investigation; neither, on the other hand, can blame be attached to me for such occasional slips as the most careful writer may make in a matter where to err is easy, and where conjecture has so long been in the habit of usurping the place of science. But I can bear the most honest witness to the large research, sound judgment, and conscientious accuracy of the author; and feel happy to have my name, in a subsidiary way, connected with a work which, I am convinced, will prove an important addition to the furniture of our popular schools.

College, Edinburgh,

February 1875.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A DICTIONARY OF PLACE-NAMES

A

A (Old Norse),

a possession;[2] e.g. Craika, Torfa, Ulpha; A (Scand.) also means an island—v. EA, p. 71.

AA, A (Scand.),

a stream; from Old Norse â, Goth. aha, Old Ger. aha (water). The word, in various forms, occurs frequently in river names throughout Western Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, and often takes the form of au or ach; e.g. the rivers Aa, Ach, Aach; Saltach (salt river); Wertach (a river with many islands)—v. WARID, etc.; Trupach (troubled stream); Weser, i.e. Wesar-aha (western stream); Lauter, i.e. Hlauter-aha (clear stream); Danube or Donau, i.e. Tuon-aha (thundering stream); Main, i.e. Magin-aha (great stream); Fisch-aha (fish stream); Schwarza (black stream); Zwiesel-au (the stream of the whirlpool); Erlach (alder-tree stream); Gron-aha (green stream); Dachau (the clayey stream); Fulda, i.e. Fold-aha (land stream); Rod-aha (reedy stream); Saale and Saala from salz (salt stream). The simple a or o, with a prefix expressive of the character of the stream, is the most frequent form of the word in Iceland and Scandinavia, and in the districts of Great Britain colonised by Norsemen or Danes; e.g. Laxa (salmon river); Hvita (white river); Brora (bridge river); Rotha (red river); Greta (weeping river); Storaa (great river); Thurso (Thor’s river), which gives its name to the town; Lossie, anc. Laxi-a (salmon river).

AB (Sansc.),
AW (Pers.),

water; e.g. Doab (the district of two waters); Menab (the mouth of the water), on the Persian Gulf; Busheab or Khoshaub (good water), a river in Hindostan, also an island in the Persian Gulf; Neelab (blue water); Punjaub (the district of the five streams); Chinab or Chenaub R., said to be a corrupt. of its former name Chaudra Bhagee (the garden of the moon), so called from a small lake of that name from which it proceeds. Cognate with this root is the Gadhelic abh, in its forms of aw or ow. Thus in Scotland we have the River Awe and Loch Awe; in Ireland, Ow and Owbeg (little stream); Ow-nageerah (the stream of the sheep); Finnow (clear stream). Cognate with these root-words is the Lat. aqua and its derivations in the Romance languages, as well as ae or ea (A.S. water). Forsteman finds river names, allied to the foregoing, throughout Germany and France, in such forms as ap, op, ep, etc., as in the Oppa, Lennep, Barop, Biberaffa.

ABAD (Pers. and Sansc.),

a dwelling or town, generally connected with the name of its founder; e.g. Hyderabad (the town of Hyder Ali, or of the Lion); Ahmedabad (of the Sultan Ahmed); Furrackabad (founded by Furrack the Fortunate); Agra or Akberabad (founded by Akber); Nujiabad (of Nujibah-Dowlah); Auringabad (founded by Aurungzebe); Jafferabad (the city of Jaffier); Jehanabad (of Shah Jehan); Jellabad (of Jellal, a chief); Moorshedabad (the town of Moorshed Khoolly-Khan); Moorabad (named after Morad, the son of Shah Jehan); Shahabad (of the Shah); Abbas-abad (founded by Abbas the Great); Dowladabad (the town of wealth); Hajiabad (of the pilgrim); Meschdabad (of the mosque); Islamabad (of the true faith); Allah-abad (of God); Secunderabad (named after Alexander the Great); Resoulabad (of the prophet); Asterabad (on the River Aster); Futteabad (the town of victory); Sadabad or Suffi-abad (the town of the sadi or suffi, i.e. the sage).

ABER (Cym.-Cel.),
ABHIR and OBAIR (Gael.),

a confluence of waters; applied, in topography, to places at the conf. of streams, or at the embouchure of a river. The derivation of the term has been traced by some etymologists to the conjunction of ath (Gael.), a ford, and bior, water; by others to Cym.-Cel. at (at) and bior (water). This prefix is general in many of the counties of Scotland, throughout Wales, and, in a few instances, in Ireland, although in the latter country the synonyms inver and cumar are more frequent. Both words are found in the topography of the Picts, but the Scots of Argyleshire used only inver before they came from Ireland to settle in that district. The word aber seems to have become obsolete among them; and as there are no abers in Ayrshire, Renfrew, and Lanarkshire, the word had probably become obsolete before the kingdom of Strathclyde was formed. Dr. Joyce, in his Irish Names of Places, traces its use as prefix or affix to the Irish root abar (a mire), as in the little stream Abberachrinn (i.e. the river of the miry place of the tree). In Wales we find Aberconway, Aberfraw, Aberistwyth, Aberavon, Aberayron, Aberdare, Aberdaron, Abergavenny, at the embouchure of the Conway, Fraw, Istwyth, Avon, Aeron, Dar, Daron, Gavenny. Barmouth, corrupt. from Aber-Mowddy, a seaport in Merioneth, at the mouth of the R. Mowddy. Berriew, corrupt. from Aber-Rhiw (at the junction of the R. Rhiw with the Severn); Aberdaugledden, the Welsh name for Haverford-west, at the mouth of twin rivers resembling two swords (gledden), which unite at Milford Haven. It is called by the Welsh now Hwlford (the sailing road) because the tide comes up to the town. Aberhonddu, at the mouth of the R. Honddi or Honddu (the county town of Brecknock), and Aberdovey, at the embouchure of the R. Dovey in Wales. In Scotland, Aberbrothwick or Arbroath, Abercorn, anc. Aeber-curnig, Aberdour, Abergeldie, Abernethy, at the embouchure of the Brothock, Cornie, Dour, Geldie, and Nethy. Aberchirder is Abhir-chiar-dur (the conf. of the dark water); Abercrombie (the curved conf.); Aberfeldy, i.e. Abhir-feathaile (the smooth conf.); Aberfoyle (the conf. of the pool, phuill); Aberlemno (the conf. of the leaping water, leumnach); Arbirlot, anc. Aber-Elliot (at the mouth of the Elliot); Applecross for Abhir-croisan (the conf. of trouble); Old Aberdeen and New Aberdeen, at the mouths of the Don and Dee, Lat. Devana-castra; Fochabers (the plain, at the river mouth), Gael. faigh, a plain; Lochaber (at the mouth of the loch); Barmouth, in Wales, corrupt, of Aber-Mawdoch or Maw.

ABI (Turc.),

a river; e.g. Abi-shiran (sweet river); Abi-shur (salt river); Abi-gurm (warm river); Abi-gard (yellow river); Abi-kuren (the river of Cyrus); Ab-Allah (God’s river).

ABT (Teut.), an abbot, Lat. abbatis.
ABIE, an abbey.

These and similar words, in the Romance languages, derived from the Heb. abba (father), were introduced into the languages of Europe in connection with the monastic system, and are attached to the names of places founded for monks, or belonging to church lands. Thus—Absberg (abbot’s hill); Apersdorf, for Abbatesdorf (abbot’s village); Absholz (abbot’s wood); Abtsroda (abbot’s clearing), in Germany; Appenzell, anc. Abbatiscella (abbot’s church), founded by the Abbot of St. Gall, A.D. 647; Abbeville (abbot’s dwelling), in France; Abbotsbury (the abbot’s fortified place), Dorset; Abbeydare (the abbey on the R. Dare in Hereford); Abbotshall, in Fife, so called from having been the occasional residence of the abbots of Dunfermline; Abdie (belonging to the abbey of Lindores); Abingdon, in Berks (abbot’s hill), Abington (with the same meaning), the name of two parishes in Cambridge and a village in Lanarkshire, and of two parishes in Ireland; Abbotsford (the ford of the Tweed in the abbey lands of Melrose); Abbotsrule (the abbey on the R. Rule in Roxburghshire); Abbeyfeale (on the R. Feale); Abbeyleix (the abbey of Lewy), an Irish chief Abbeygormacan (Irish mainister); Ua-g Cormacain (the abbey of the O’Cormacans); Abbeylara, i.e. Irish abbey, leath-rath (the abbey of the half-rath); Abbeyshrule, anc. Sruthair (the stream), named for a monastery founded by one of the O’Farells; Abbeystrowry (with the same meaning), in Ireland; Abbensee (the lake of the abbey), in Upper Austria; Newabbey, a Par in Kirkcudbright (named from an abbey founded in 1275 by Devorgilla, the mother of John Baliol); Badia-San-Salvatore (the abbey of the Holy Saviour); Badia-Torrita (the abbey with the little tower), in Italy; Appin, in Argyleshire, anc. Abbphon (abbot’s land), and Appin, in Dull, indicating probably the territory of a Celtic monastery.

ACH, or ICH,

a form of the Teut. aha (water), p. 1, as in Salzach (salt stream), but it is also a common affix to words in the Teut. and Cel. languages, by which a noun is formed into an adjective, signifying full of, or abounding in, equivalent to the Lat. terminations etum and iacum. Thus, in German topography, we find Lindach, Aichach, Aschach, Buchach, Tannich, Fichtig, i.e. abounding in lime, oak, ash, beech, fir, and pine wood; Affaltrach (in apple-trees); Erlicht (in alders); Heselicht (in hazels); Laubach (in leaves). In Ireland: Darach, Farnach (abounding in oaks and alders); Ounagh, in Sligo, and Onagh, in Wicklow (watery place), from the adjective Abhnach (abounding in streams). In the Sclav. languages, again, the affix zig has the same meaning, as in Leipzig (abounding in lime-trees).

ACHADH (Gadhelic),
AUCH, AUGH,
AUCHEN,

a field, plain, or meadow; e.g. Aghinver (the field of the confluence); Aghindarragh (of the oak wood); Achonry, anc. Achadh-Chonaire (Conary’s field); Ardagh (high field); Aghabeg (little field); Aghaboy (yellow field); Aghamore (great field); Aghaboe (the cow’s field); Aghadown (of the fort); Aghadoe, i.e. Achadh-da-eo (of the two yew-trees). In Scotland: Auchclach, Auchinleck, Auchnacloich (the stony field); Achray (smooth field); Auchinleith (the physician’s field); Auchindoire (the field of the oak grove); Auchinfad (of the peats); Auchinrath (of the fort); Auchincruive (of the tree, craoibhe); Auchline (of the pool); Auchnacraig (of the rock); Auchindinny and Auchteany (the field of the fire)—teine, i.e. probably places where the Beltane fires were kindled.

AESC (A.S.),
ASK (Scand.),
ESCHE (Ger.),

the ash-tree; e.g. Ashton, Ashby, Askham (ash-tree dwelling); Ashrigg (the ash-tree ridge), in England. In Germany: Eschdorf, Eschweil, Eschweiller (ash-tree dwelling); Eschenbach (ash-tree brook); Eschwege (ash-tree road).

AESP (A.S.),
ASP (Scand.),

the aspen or poplar; e.g. Aspley, Aspden (poplar field or valley).

AIN (Semitic),
AAYN,

a fountain; e.g. Aenon (the fountains); Enshemish (the fountain of the sun); Engedi (of the goat); Enrogel (of the fuller’s field); Dothan (the two fountains); Aayn-el-kebira (the great fountain); Ain-halu (the sweet fountain); Aayn-taiba (the good fountain); Engannim (the fountain of the gardens); Enrimmon (of the pomegranates).

AITE, or AIT (Gadhelic),
AEHT, or EIGEN (Teut.),

a place, a possession; e.g. Daviot, anc. Damh-aite (the place of the ox), in Aberdeenshire, and also in Inverness; Tynet, i.e. ait-an-taimhu (the place of the river), in Banffshire. In Ireland the word is used in combination with tigh (a house); e.g. Atty (the dwelling-place); Atty-Dermot (the dwelling of Dermot); Atti-duff (the dark dwelling); Oedt (the possession), a town in Prussia, on the Niers; Iberstolfs-eigen (the possession of Iberstolf); Iberstolfs-eigen, Smurses-eigen (i.e. the possession of Iberstolf and Smurse); Souder-eygen (south possession).

AITH, or AED, or EID (Scand.),

a headland; e.g. Aithsvoe (the bay of the headland); Aithsthing (the place of meeting on the headland); Eidfoss (the waterfall on the headland).

AK, or AEK (A.S.),
EK, or EG (Scand.),
EYKE (Dutch),
EICHE (Ger.),

an oak; e.g. Acton, Acworth (oak town and manor); Oakley (oak meadow); Oakham (oak dwelling); Auckland (oakland); Acrise (oak ascent); Wokingham or Oakingham (the dwelling among oaks); Sevenoaks, anc. Seovanacca, named from some oak-trees which once occupied the eminence on which it stands, but Okehampton, in Devon, is on the R. Oke. In Germany and in Holland are Eichstadt, Eichdorf, Eikheim (oak dwelling); Ekholta (oak wood); Eichhalden (oak height); Eichstegen (oak path); Echehout, in Hainault (oak wood); Eykebusch (oak thicket).

AK (Turc.),

white; e.g. Ak-tag, Ak-dagh (the white mountains); Ak-su (white river); Ak-hissar (white castle); Ak-serai (white palace); Ak-shehr (white dwelling); Ak-meschid (white mosque); Ak-kalat (white fortress).

AL (the Arabic definite article);

e.g. Alkalat (the fortress); Almaden (the mine); Alcantara (the bridge); Alkasar (the palace); Almeida (the table); Almeria (the conspicuous); Almazen (the storehouse); Alcarria (the farm); Alcana (the exchange); Algezira (the island), anc. Mesopotamia (i.e. between the rivers); Algeciras (the islands), in Spain; Algarve (the west); Almansa (the plain); Almazara (the mill); Alhambra (the red); Alhucen (the beautiful); Alpuxarras (the grassy mountains).

ALD, EALD (A.S.),
ALT (Ger.),
OUDE, OLDEN (Dutch),

old; e.g. Alton, Oldham, Althorpe, Alcaster, Aldwark (old dwelling, farm, camp, fortress); Audlem (old lyme or border); Audley (old field), in England. In Germany: Altenburg, Altendorf, Oldenburg (old dwelling); Altenmarkt (old market); Altmark (old boundary); Altstadt (old place); Altsattel (old seat); Altofen (old oven), so called from its warm baths; Oudenarde (old earth or land); Oudenbosch (old thicket); Oude-capel (old chapel).

ALDEA (Span. and Port., from the Arabic),

a village; e.g. Aldea-del-Cano (the dog’s village); Aldea-vieya (old village); Aldea-el-Muro (the walled village); Aldea-del-Rio (of the river); Aldea Galliga (of the Gauls).

ALIT (Cym.-Cel.),
ALT (Irish),

a height or cliff; e.g. Alltmaur (the great height); Builth, in Wales, i.e. Bu-allt (the steep place of the wild oxen). The Alts (heights or glen-sides), Monaghan; Altachullion (the cliff of the holly); Altavilla, i.e. Alt-a-bhile (the glen-side of the old tree); Altinure (the cliff of the yew-tree); Altanagh (abounding in cliffs); Altan (the little cliff).

ALP, AILPE (Celtic),
AIL,

a rock or cliff; e.g. the Alps; Albainn (the hilly or high land), the anc. name of Scotland; Albania, with the same meaning; Alpenach (the mountain stream), at the foot of Mount Pilate; Alva and Alvah (the rocky), parishes in Scotland; Cantal (the head of the rock), in France. In Ireland the word ail takes the form of oil, aspirated foyle or faill; e.g. Foilycleara (O’Clery’s cliff); Foilnaman (the cliff of the women): but while the aspirated form of ail is confined to the south, aill is found all over Ireland; Ayleacotty, i.e. Aill-a-choite (the cliff of the little boat); Ailla-gower (the goat’s cliff); Alleen (the diminutive) is found in Alleen-Hogan and Alleen-Ryan (Hogan’s and Ryan’s little cliff). When, however, foyle comes in as a termination, it is commonly derived from poll (a hole), as in Ballyfoyle and Ballyfoile (the town of the hole). The anc. name of Britain, Albion, has sometimes been traced to this root, but more generally to the white cliffs (Lat. albus) on the coast of Kent, as seen first by the Romans.

ALR (A.S.),
ALNUS (Lat.),
AUNE (Fr.),

the alder-tree; e.g. Alr-holt, Aldershot (alder-tree wood); Alresford (Alderford); Alrewas (alder-tree pasture); Alderley (alder-tree meadow), in England; Aulney, Aulnoy, Aulnois, Aunay, Auneau (alder grove), in France.

ALT (Gadhelic),

a stream; e.g. the Alt, Aldan, Alta (river names); Alt-dowran (otter stream); Aultsigh (gliding stream); Alt-na-guish (the stream of the fir-trees); Aldivalloch, i.e. Allt-a-bhealaich (the stream of the pass); Alness, i.e. Allt-an-casa (of the cascade); Alltmore (great stream); Auldearn, i.e. Allt-fearn (alder-tree stream); Cumbernauld, corrupt. from Cumar-nan-alta (the confluence of the streams); Garavault in Aberdeenshire, Garvault in East Lothian, and Garvald in Dumfriesshire (rough stream); Altderg (red stream).

ALTUN, or ALTAN (Tartar),

golden; e.g. the Altai, or golden mountains; Altanor (golden lake); Altan-su (golden river); Alta-Yeen (the golden mountains); Altun-tash (golden rock); Altun-kupri (golden bridge).

AM, or AN,

contrac. from Ger. an den (on the, or at the); e.g. Amberg (at the hill); Amdorf or Ambach, Amsteg, Amwalde (at the village, brook, path, wood).

AMAR (Old Ger.),

a kind of grain; e.g. Amarbach, Amarthal, Amarwang, Amarveld (the brook, valley, strip of land, field where this grain grew).

AMBACHT, or AMT (Ger.),

a district under the government of an Amtman or bailiff; e.g. Amt-sluis (the sluice of the Ambacht); Amthof (the court of the Amtman); Graven-Ambacht (the duke’s district); Ambachtsbrug (the bridge of the Ambacht).

AMBR,

an Indo-Germanic word, signifying a river, allied to the Sansc. ambu (water). According to Forsteman (v. Deutsche Ortsnamen) the suffix r was added by most European nations before their separation from the Asiatic tribes, as appears in the Greek ombros and the Lat. imber (a shower). The word appears in the names of tribes and persons, as well as of places, on the European continent; e.g. the Ambrones (or dwellers by the water), and perhaps in Umbria; Amberloo and Amersfoort (the meadow and ford by the water), in Holland; and in such river names as the Ammer, Emmer, Emmerich, Ambra, etc.

ANGER (Ger.),

a meadow or field; e.g. Rabenanger (the raven’s field); Kreutzanger (the field of the cross); Moosanger (mossy field); Wolfsanger (the wolf’s field, or of Wolf, a man’s name); Vogelsanger (the birds’ field); Angerhusen (the field houses); Angerbach (the field brook); Anger (the field), a town in Austria; Angerburg (the fortress in the field).

ANGRA (Port.),

a creek or bay; e.g. Angra (a sea-port in the Azores); Angra-de-los-reyes (the king’s bay).

AQUA (Lat.),
AGUA (Span. and Port.), ACQUA (It.),
EAU (Fr.; Old Fr. AX),

water; e.g. Aix, anc. Aquæ-Sextiæ (the warm springs, said to have been discovered and named by Sextus Calvenus, B.C. 123), in Provence; Aix, in Dauphiny, anc. Aquæ-Vocontiorum (the waters of the Vocontii); Aix-les-bains (the bath waters), in Savoy; Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle, celebrated for its mineral springs, and for the chapel erected over the tomb of Charlemagne; Plombières, anc. Aquæ-plombariæ (waters impregnated with lead); Veraqua, in New Granada, corrupt. from Verdes-aguas (green waters); Aigue-perse (the bubbling water), in Auvergne; Aigue-vive (the spring of living water); Aigue-belle (beautiful water); Aigue-noire (black water, etc.), in France; Dax, celebrated for its saline springs, corrupt. from Civitas aquensis (the city of waters); Aigues-mortes (stagnant waters); Aguas-bellas (beautiful waters), Portugal; Aguas-calientes (warm waters), Mexico; Evaux, Evreux (on the waters), France; Evian, anc. Aquarum (the waters), Savoy; Entreves and Entraigues (between the waters), anc. Interaquæ; Yvoire, anc. Aquaria (the watery district), on Lake Geneva; Aas or Les Eaux (the waters), Basses Pyrénées; Nerac, anc. Aquæ Neriedum (the waters of the Nerii); Amboise and Amboyna (surrounded by waters); Bordeaux (the dwelling on the water), borda, Low Lat. (a dwelling); Vichy, anc. Aquæ calidæ (warm waters), on the Allier; Bex (upon the two waters), at the juncture of the Rhone and Avençon; Outre L’Eau (beyond the water); Acapulca, in Mexico, corrupt. from Portus aquæ pulchræ (the port of beautiful waters); Agoa-fria (cold water), Brazil; Aqui, in North Italy, celebrated for its baths; Acireale, anc. aguas calientes (the warm waters); Agoa-quente (hot spring), Brazil.

ARA,

a frequent element in river names, with various and even opposite meanings. Some of the river names may have come from the Sansc. ara (swift, or the flowing), and in Tamil aar means simply a river. There is another Sanscrit word arb (to ravage or destroy), with which the Gadhelic words garw, garbh (rough) may be connected; and, on the other hand, there is the Welsh araf (gentle). According to the locality and the characteristics of the stream, one must judge to which of these roots its name may belong. There are, in England, the Aire, Arre, Arro, Arrow; in France, the Arve, Erve, Arveiron, etc.; in Switzerland and Germany, the Aar, Are; in Spain and Italy, the Arva, Arno; and in Scotland, the Ayr, Aray, Irvine, etc. Many of these names may signify simply flowing water (the river), while others beginning with the syllable ar may be referred to the adjectival forms, araf, arb, ara, or garbh, followed by another root-word for water, as in Arrow (the swift stream); Yarrow (the rough stream); ow (water); Arveiron (the furious stream); avon (water); Arar (the gentle stream), now the Saone.

ARD, AIRD (Gadhelic),

a height, or, as an adjective, high; e.g. the Aird (the height) on the south coast of the island of Lewis, also in Inverness-shire; Aird Point in the island of Skye; Aird-dhu (the black height), a hill in Inverness-shire; the Airds (high lands in Argyleshire); Airdrie, Gael. Aird-righ (the king’s height), or, perhaps, Aird-reidh (the smooth height); Aird’s Moss (a muirland tract in Ayrshire); Ardbane (white height); Ardoch (high field); Ardclach (high stony ground); Ardach and Ardaghy (high field); Ardmore (great height); Ardeen and Arden (the little height); Ardglass (green height); Ardfert (the height of the grave or ditch, Irish fert); Ardrishaig (the height full of briers, driseach); Ardnamurchan (the height of the great headland, ceann, or of the great ocean, cuan); Ardgower (goat’s height); Ardtornish (the height of the cascade, cas and torr); Ardross (high point); Ardrossan (little high point); Ardchattan (St. Cathan’s height); Ardersier, Gael. Ard-ros-siar (the high western height); Ardlui (the height of the fawn, laoidh); Ardentinny (of the fire, teine); Ardboe (of the cow); Ardbraccan (of St. Brachan); Ardfinan (St. Finan’s height); Armagh, in Ireland, anc. Ardmacha (the height of Macha, the wife of one of the early Irish colonists); Arroquhar, in Dumbarton, i.e. Ardthir (the high land); Ardmeanach (the mossy height or the black isle); Ardgask (the hero’s height, Gael. gaisgeach, a hero); Ardnacrushy (of the cross); Ardtrea (St. Trea’s height); Ardnarea, i.e. Ard-na-riaghadh (the height of the executions, with reference to a dark tale of treachery and murder); Ardgay (windy height); Ardblair (high field); Ardwick (high town, a suburb of Manchester). The Lat. root arduus (high) is found in Ardea, in Italy; the Ardes (or heights), in Auvergne; Auvergne itself has been traced to Ar-fearann (high lands), but Cocheris, Au Noms de Lieu, gives its ancient name as Alverniacus (i.e. the domain of the Auvergni). Ardennes, Forest of (high-wooded valleys); Ardwick-le-street (the high town on the great Roman road), stratum. Ard, art, and artha are also Persian prefixes attached to the names of places and persons; e.g. Ardboodha (the high place of Buddha); Aravalli (the hill of strength); and such personal names as Artaxerxes, Artabanes, Artamenes. In some cases it may refer to the agricultural habits of the Indo-Germanic races (Lat. aro, Grk. αροω, Goth. arjan, Old High Ger. aran, Cel. ar (to plough), hence the Aryan tribes are those belonging to the dominant race—the aristocracy of landowners, as distinguished from the subject races—v. Taylor’s Names of Places.

ARN, ERN (Teut.),
ARNE,
ARA (Lat.), a home,
AREA, bas (Lat.), AIRE (Fr.),
AROS (Cel.),

a place, farm, dwelling; e.g. Heddern (hiding-place); Beddern (sleeping-place); Suthern (south place); Arne, a town in Yorkshire; Chiltern (chalk place); Whithorn, in Wigton, A.S. Whitern, Lat. Candida-casa (white house); Asperne (the place of poplar-trees); Femern (of cattle); Domern (of judgment); Thalern (valley dwelling); Mauthern (toll place); Bevern and Bevergern (the dwelling on the R. Bever); Aire, Lat. Area-Atrebatum (the dwelling of the Atrebates), on the Adour, in France; also Aire, on the Lys; Les Aires (the farms); Airon, etc., in France, Bavaria, Ger. Baiern (the dwelling of the Boii); Aros, Gael. (the dwelling), in Mull; Arosaig (corner dwelling), Argyle.

ARN (Old Ger.),
ARI (Norse),
ERYR (Welsh),

an eagle. This word is used in topography either with reference to the bird itself, or to a personal name derived from it; e.g. Arnfels (eagle’s rock); Arnberg, Arnstein, Arlberg (eagle mountain or rock); Arisdale (eagle valley, or the valley of a person called Arix); Arnau (eagle meadow); Arnecke (eagle corner); Arendal (eagle valley); Arenoe (eagle island); Eryri (the eagle mountain), the Welsh name for Snowdon.

ARX (Lat.),

a fortress; e.g. Arcé, anc. Arx, a town in Italy with a hill fortress called Rocca d’Arcé (the rock of the fortress); Arcis sur Aube (the fortress on the R. Aube), in France; Arcole and Arcola, in Lombardy and Sardinia; Saar-Louis, anc. Arx-Ludovici-Sarum (the fortress of Louis on the Saar), founded by Louis XIV., 1680; Arx-fontana or Fuentes (the fortress of the fountain), in Spain; Monaco, anc. Arx-Monæci (the fortress of the Monæci), on the Gulf of Genoa; Thours, anc. Tuedæ-Arx (the fortress on the R. Thouet), in France.

AS, or AAS (Scand.),

a hill ridge; e.g. Astadr (ridge dwelling); As and Aas, the names of several towns in Sweden and Norway; Aswick, Aastrap, Aasthorp (the village or farm on the ridge) in Shetland.

ASTA (Basque),

a rock; e.g. Astorga, in Spain, Lat. Asturica-Augusta (the great city on the rocky water, ura); Astiapa and Estepa (the dwelling at the foot of the rock), in Spain; Astulez and Astobeza, also in Spain; Asti, a district in Sardinia which was peopled by Iberians or Basques; Astura (the rocky river); Asturias (the country of the dwellers by that river); Ecija, in Spain, anc. Astigi (on the rock); Estepa and Estepona (rocky ground).

ATH, AGH (Gadhelic),
AUGH,

a ford. This root-word is more common in Ireland than in Scotland, and is cognate with the Lat. vadum, and the A.S. wath or wade; e.g. Athy, i.e. Ath-Ae (the ford of Ae, a Munster chief who was slain at the spot); Athmore (great ford); Athdare (the ford of oaks); Athenry (the king’s ford); Athlone, i.e. Ath Luaen (the ford of St. Luan); Athleague (stony ford); Athane (little ford); Aghanloo (Lewy’s little ford); the town of Trim is in Irish Athtruim (the ford of the elder trees); Agolagh, i.e. Athgoblach (the forked ford); Aboyne (the ford of the river), on the Dee in Aberdeenshire; Athgoe, i.e. Ath-goibhne (the ford of the smiths), in Dublin.

ATHEL (A.S.),
ADEL (Ger.),
ADELIG (Gothic),

noble, or the nobles; e.g. Adelsdorf, Adelsheim, Adelshofen, Attelbury (the nobles’ dwelling); Athelney (the island of the nobles), in Somersetshire, formerly insulated by the rivers Tone and Parret; Addelsfors (the nobles’ waterfall); Adelsberg (the nobles’ hill); Adelsclag (the nobles’ wood-clearing); Adelsoe (the nobles’ island); Adelmanns-felden (the nobleman’s field).

AU, AUE (Ger.),
AUGIA (Lat.),

a meadow, formed from aha (water), and frequently annexed to the name of a river; e.g. Aarau, Ilmenau, Rheinau, Wetterau, Oppenau, Muhrau (the meadow of the Aar, Ilmen, Rhine, Wetter, Oppa, Muhr); Frankenau (the Franks’ meadow); Lichtenau (the meadow of light); Reichenau (rich meadow); Schoenau (beautiful meadow); Greenau (green); Langenau (long); Weidenau (pasture-meadow); Rosenau (the meadow of roses); Lindau (of lime-trees); Herisau, Lat. Augia-dominus (the Lord’s meadow); Eu, anc. Augia (the meadow), in Normandy; Hanau (the enclosed meadow); Nassau (the moist meadow); Iglau (the meadow of the R. Igla, in Moravia); Troppau, in Silesia (the meadow of the R. Oppa).

AUCHTER or OCHTER (Gadhelic),
UCHDER (Welsh),

the summit, or, as an adjective, upper; e.g. Auchtertyre, anc. Auchterardower (the summit on the water); Auchterarder (the upper high land); Auchterblair (upper field); Auchtercairn (upper rock); Auchtermuchty (the upper dwelling, tigh, of the wild boar, muc); Auchterau (the upper water); Auchtertool (the upper land on the R. Tiel), in Fife; Auchterless (the upper side, slios). In Ireland this word takes the form of Oughter; e.g. Oughterard (upper height); Oughter-lough (upper lake, in reference to Loch Erne); Balloughter (upper town); Lissoughter (upper fort); Killoughter (upper church). The Irish adjective uachdar is not unfrequently Anglicised water, as in Clowater in Carlow, i.e. Cloch-uachdar (upper stone or castle); Watree, in Kilkenny, i.e. Uachdaraighe (upper lands)—v. Joyce’s Irish Names of Places.

AVON, AFON (Cym.-Cel.),
ABHAIN, ABHUINNE (Gael.),
AMNIS (Lat. Sansc. ap.),

water, a river; e.g. the Avon, Aven, Aune, Auney, Inney, Ewenny, Aney, Eveny, river names in England, Wales, and Ireland; Avengorm (red river); Aven-banna (white river); Avenbui (yellow river); Avonmore (great river), in Ireland; the Seine, anc. Seimh-au (smooth river); the Mayenne or Meduana (probably the middle river, from Cel. meadhou). In France there are from this root—the Ain, Avenne, Vilaine, Vienne; the Abona, in Spain. In Scotland: the Almond or Awmon; Devon (deep river); Doon (dark river); Kelvin (woody river); Annan (quiet river); the Leith, Leithen, Lethen (the broad or the gray river); the Don, in Scotland and England (dark or brown river); Irvine and Earn (the west-flowing river); Anwoth, in Kirkcudbright, i.e. Avonwath (the course of the river); the Spey, speach-abhain (swift river); the Allan (beauteous river, aluinn); the Boyne, anc. Bouoninda (perhaps yellow river, buidhe). Many towns derive their names from their rivers, or from their vicinity to water: thus, Avignon and Verona (on the water); Amiens, the cap. of the Ambiani (dwellers on the water, i.e. of the Samara or Somme). Teramo, anc. Interamnia (between the rivers), and Terni, with the same meaning; Avenay, anc. Avenacum (on the river); Avesnes, celebrated for its mineral springs. But such names as Avenay, Avennes, etc., may have been derived in many cases from Lat. avena, Fr. avoine (oats)—v. Cocheris’s Noms de Lieu.

B

BAAL,

a prefix in Phœnician names, derived from the worship of the sun-god among that people; e.g. Baalath and Kirjath-Baal (the city of Baal); Baal-hazor (Baal’s village); BaalHermon (near Mount Hermon); Baal-Judah, etc., in Palestine. Sometimes, however, the word is used as synonymous with beth (a dwelling), as Baal-tamar and Baal-Meon (for Bethtamar and Beth Meon). But Baal-Perazim, we are told, means the place of breaches, and has no reference to the sun-god, Baalbec (the city of the sun), in Syria.

BAB (Ar.),

a gate or court; Babel and Babylon, according to the Arabic (the gate of God), or from a word signifying confusion, Gen. xi. 9; Baab (the gate), a town in Syria; El-Baab (the gate), in the Sahara; Bab-el-Mandeb, Strait of (the gate of tears), so called by the Arabs from its dangerous navigation; Bab-el-estrecho (the gate of the narrow passage), the Arabic name for the Strait of Gibraltar.

BACH, BATCH (Teut.),
BEC, BOEK (Scand.),
but bach, by mutation fach or vach, in Welsh names means small, little,

a brook; e.g. Snail-batch and Caldbeck (cold brook or swift brook); snell in A.S. and Old English means active, sharp, quick; and in Scotland, as applied to the weather, it means sharp or severely cold; Crumbeck (crooked brook); Lauterbach (clear brook); Skurbeck (dividing brook); Griesbach and Sandbach (sandy brook); Gronenbach (green brook); Over-beck (upper); Reichenbach (rich); Marbeck (boundary); Schoenbach (beautiful brook); Beckford (the brook ford); Bacheim and Beckum (the dwelling at the brook); Beckermet (the meeting of brooks); Bickerstith (the station at the brook); Laubach and Laybach (the warm brook); but Laubach may also mean rich in leaves—v. ACH. Bec in Normandy is named from a brook that flows into the Risle: Birkbeck in Westmoreland (the birch-tree brook); Ansbach or Anspach (at the stream in Bavaria); Schwalbach (the swallow’s brook), in Nassau; Houlbec, in Normandy, Holbeck, in Lincoln and in Denmark (the brook in the hollow); Fulbeck (Lincoln) and Foulbec, in Normandy (muddy brook).

BAD (Teut.),
BADD (Cym.-Cel.),

a bath or mineral spring; e.g. Baden, anc. Thermæ-Austricæ (the Austrian warm springs); Baden-Baden, anc. Civitas Aquenses Aurelia (the watering-place of Aurelius); Baden-bei-Wien (the baths near Vienna); Baden-ober (the upper baths); Franzens-bad (the bath of the Franks); Carlsbad or Kaiser-bad (the bath-town of the Emperor Charles IV. of Bohemia); Marien-bad, Lat. Balneum Mariæ (the bath-town of the Virgin Mary); Wiesbaden, anc. Fontes-Mattiaci (the baths or springs of the Mattiaci, dwellers on the meadow)—v. WIESE; Badborn (bath well); Wildbad (wild bath, i.e. not prepared by art), in the Black Forest; Slangenbad (the bath of snakes), so called from the number of snakes found in the mineral springs; Badsdorf (bath village), Bohemia. The Celtic name of the English city Bath was Caer-badon, or Bathan-ceaster (bath city or fortress); the Anglo-Saxons made it Akeman-ceaster (the sick man’s camp), or Aquæ Sulis (dedicated to a British divinity, Sulis, identified with Minerva).

BAGH (Ar. and Turc.),

a garden; e.g. Bag, or Baug, in Hindostan. Bagdad superseded Seleucia, which, it is related, was reduced to such a state of ruin as to have nothing remaining on the spot where it stood formerly but the cell of the monk Dad; hence the name of the new city founded by the Caliph Almazar, A.D. 762. Baghdad, i.e. the garden of Dad, a monk who had his cell near the site of the city; Bala-Bagh (high garden), in Affghanistan; Karabagh (black garden), a district in Armenia, so called from its thick forests; Alum-bagh (the garden of the Lady Alum), in Hindostan; Baktschisarai (the palace of the garden), in Crimea.

BAGNA (It.),
BANO (Span.),
BANHO (Port.),
BAIN (Fr.),

from the Lat. balneum (a bath); e.g. Bagnacavallo (the horses’ bath); Bagna-di-aqua (water bath); Bagnazo, Bagnara, Bagnari, towns in Italy, celebrated for their baths. In France there are Bagnères-de-Bigorre (the baths of Bigorones, i.e. the dwellers between two heights); Bagnères-de-Luchon (the baths on the R. Luchon); Bains-les-du-mont-doré (the baths of the golden mount); with numerous names with similar meanings, such as Bagneux, Bagneaux, Bagnol, Bagnoles, Bagnolet, Bagnot, etc. In Italy: Bagnolina (the little bath); Bagni-di-Lucca, Bagni-di-Pisa (the baths of Lucca and Pisa).

BAHIA (Port.),

a bay; e.g. Bahia or St. Salvador (the town of the Holy Saviour), on the bay, in Brazil; Bahia-blanca (white bay); Bahia-hermosa (beautiful); Bahia-honda (deep); Bahia-negra (black); Bahia-neuva (new bay); Bahia-de-Neustra-Senora (the bay of Our Lady); Bahia-Escosesa (Scottish bay), in Hayti; Bayonna, in Spain, and Bayonne, in France (the good bay), from a Basque word, signifying good; Baia (the town on the bay), in Naples; Bahia-de-todos los Santos (All Saints’ Bay), in Brazil.

BAHN (Ger.),

a way or path; e.g. Winter-bahn (winter path); Langen-bahn (long path); Wild-bahn (wild or uncultivated path).

BAHR, or BAHAR (Ar.),

a sea, a lake, and sometimes a river; e.g. Bahar-el-Abiad (the white); Bahar-el-azrak (the blue river), forming together the Nile; Bahar-belame (waterless river), in Egypt; Baraach (the sea of wealth), in Hindostan; Bahari (the maritime district), Lower Egypt; Bahr-assal (salt lake), Africa; Bahrein (the two seas), a district in Arabia, between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea; also a group of islands on the same coast.

BAILE, BALLY (Gadhelic),

originally merely a place, a home, then a fort, a town, allied to the Grk. polis. The word joined with the article an is found as ballin for baile-an; e.g. Ballinrobe (the town of the R. Robe); Balbriggan (Brecon’s town); Ballintra and Ballintrae, in Ireland, and Ballantrae, in Scotland (the dwelling on the strand); Ballinure (the town of the yew); Ballintubbert (the town of the well); Ballinakill (of the church or wood); Ballinahinch (of the island); Ballinamona (of the bog), in Ireland; Ballycastle (castle town); Ballymena (middle town); Ballymony (of the shrubbery); Balmagowan and Ballingown (of the smiths); Ballymore and Ballmore (great town); Nohoval, corrupt. from Nuachongbhail (new dwelling), localities in Ireland. In Scotland: Balvanie, anc. Bal-Beni-mor (the dwelling of Beyne, the great first Bishop of Mortlach), in Aberdeenshire; Balmoral (the majestic dwelling, morail); Ballater (the dwelling on the hill-slope, leitir); Balmerino (on the sea-shore, muir); Balachulish, Gael. Baile-na-caolish (the dwelling on the narrow strait); Baldernock, Gael. Baile-dair-cnoc (the dwelling at the oak hill); Balnacraig (dwelling of the rock); Balfour (cold dwelling); Balgay (windy dwelling, gaoth, wind); Balfron (of mourning, bhroin), so called, according to tradition, because a number of children had been devoured by wolves at the place; Balgreen (the sunny place, grianach); Balgarvie (of the rough stream); Ballagan and Ballogie (the dwelling in the hollow); Balgownie and Balgonie (of the smiths); Balbardie (of the bard); Balmac Lellan (the dwelling of the Bal-MacLellan), in Kirkcudbright; Balmaghie (of the Maghies); Balquhidder (the town at the back of the country); Balblair (of the field or plain).

BALA (Turc.),

high; e.g. Bala-hissar (high castle); Bala-dagh (high mountain); Bala-Ghauts (the high Ghauts); Balasore (high dwelling); Balkan (high ridge), also called Mount Haemus (the snowy mount), hima (Sansc.), snow; Balkh (high town), anc. Bactra.

BALKEN (Ger.),

a ridge; e.g. Griesen-balken (sandy ridge); Moes-balken (mossy ridge); Schieren-balken (clear ridge)—the word is applied to chains of mountains in general.

BALTA (Scand.),
BALTEUS (Lat.),

a strait or belt; e.g. Balta (the island of the strait); Baltia (the country of belts or straits), the ancient name of Scandinavia. The Great and Little Belts, or straits.

BAN (Gadhelic),

white, fair; e.g. Rivers Bann, Bane, Bain, Bana, Banon, Bandon, Banney, etc.; Banchory (the fair valley).

BAN (Cym.-Cel.),

a hill or height; e.g. Cefn-y-fan (the hill-ridge); Tal-y-fan (the face of the hill), in Wales. B by mutation becomes f.

BANT, BANZ (Ger.),
POINT and PAINT, Ahd,

a district or enclosure, from Old Ger. pyndan (to confine), cognate with Cym.-Cel. pant; e.g. Brabant, i.e. Brach-bant (the ploughed district); Altenbanz (the old); Ostrevant (the eastern); Grunnenbant (the green district); Hasel-point (hazel field); Pound-stock (the enclosed place), in Germany; Drenthe, corrupt. from Thri-banta (the three districts), in Holland; Bantz, in Bavaria. From pant we have in Monmouth, Panteg (beautiful valley, têg); Pant-y-goitre (the valley of the town in the wood).

BANYA (Hung.),

a mine; e.g. Uj-banya (new mine); Nagy-banya (great mine), a town of Hungary with gold and silver mines, named by the Germans Neustadt; Abrud-banya (the mine on the R. Abrud, a district abounding in metals).

BARR (Gadhelic),
BAR (Cym.-Cel.),
BARD (Scand.),

a summit; e.g. Barmona (the summit or top of the bog); Barra-vore (great height, mor); Barmeen (smooth summit), in Ireland. In several counties in Scotland we have Barr (the uplands), but Barr in Ayrshire took its name from St. Barr; Barbreac (spotted point); Barrie and Barra (the head of the water, abh); Barcaldine (hazel point, calltunn); Barbeth (birch point); Barrglass (gray point); Bar-darroch (the summit of the oak grove); Bardearg (red point); Barcaple (the horses’ point); the Bard of Mousa and of Bressay, in the Shetlands, is the projection on these islands; the ancient name of the town of Perth was Barr-Tatha (the height of the R. Tay); Barwyn for Bar-gwn (a white-topped mountain, or tipped with snow), in Wales. In France the prefix bar is applied to strongholds, as in Bar-le-Duc (the duke’s citadel); Bar-sur Saone, Bar-sur Aube (the stronghold on the rivers Saone and Aube).

BARROW (Scand.),
BEORH (A.S.),

a mound of earth, especially over a grave; e.g. Barrow-by (the dwelling at the mound); Ingle-barrow (the mound at the grave of Ingold). But, in some cases, barrow may be a form of A.S. boerw (a grove), as in Barrow-den (the grove hollow), in Rutland.

BAU (Ger.),
GEBAUDE,
BAÜEN, to build,

a building; e.g. Brun-bau (the well-house); Neu-bau and Alten-bau (the old and new building); Buittle (the building), a parish on the Solway Firth; Tichel-boo (brick building); Forst-gebaude (the building in the forest). It takes the form of bottle and buttel in Germany, and battle in Britain—v. p. 27; Newbattle (new building in Mid Lothian); Wulfen-buttel (the dwelling of Ulpha); Bolton, in Lancashire, anc. Botl.

BAUM (Ger.)
BEAM (A.S.),
BOOM (Dut.),

a tree, a post; e.g. Baumburg (tree town); Baumgarten (the orchard); Baumgartenthal (orchard valley); Baum-krüg (the tree inn); Schöenbaum (beautiful tree); Heesbaum (the hazel-tree), in Germany; Bampton and Bempton (tree town), in Oxford and Yorkshire; but Bampton in Devon takes its name from the R. Bathom—its ancient name was Bathom-ton.

BEDD (Welsh),

a grave; e.g. Bedd-gelert (the grave of a favourite hound of Llewelyn, or, as others affirm, the grave of a saint named Kelert).

BEDW (Cym.-Cel.),
BEITH (Gadhelic),
BEDWEN (Welsh),

the birch-tree, cognate with the Lat. betula; e.g. Beddoe (the birches), Salop; Bedwelty, i.e. Bedw-gwal-ty (the wild beast’s dwelling among the birches), in Monmouth; Penbedw (birch hill), Monmouth. In Ireland: Beagh, Beaghy, Behagh, Behy, i.e. (birch land); Kilbehey, i.e. coill-beithne (birch wood); Behanagh (birch-producing river); Ballybay, i.e. Bel-atha-beithe (the ford mouth of the birch); Aghaveagh (birch field). In Scotland: Beith and Beath, in Fife and Ayrshire; Dalbeath, Dalbeth, Dalbeathie (the birch field or valley); Barbeth (the summit of birches).

BEEMD (Dutch),

a meadow; e.g. Beemd and Beemte (on the meadow); Haagschbeemden (enclosed meadow); Beemster-polder (the meadow embankment).

BEER, BIR (Heb. and Ar.),

a well; e.g. Beer-sheba (the well of the oath); Beer-Elim (the well of heroes); Beer-lahai-roi (the well of the living sight); Beirout (the city of wells), in Palestine; Bir, a town of Asiatic Turkey.

BEER, or BEAR (Teut.),
BUR (A.S.),
BYR (Old Ger.),

a farm, cottage, or dwelling; e.g. Beer-Regis (the king’s farm); Beer-Alston (the dwelling of Alston); Beardon and Berewood (the dwelling on a hill and in a wood); Aylesbear (the dwelling of Aegle); Bühren, in Hanover and Switzerland; Beuren, in Swabia; Grasbeuren (grassy dwelling); Sandbuur (sandy dwelling); Erlesbura (dwelling among elms); Beerendrecht (the dwelling on the pasture); Nassenbeuren (damp dwelling); Blaubeuren (the blue dwelling); Benediktbeuren (the dwelling of the Benedictines).

BEG, BEAG (Gadhelic),
BACH, or BYCHAN, by mutation fach or fychan (Cym.-Cel.),

little; e.g. Morbihan (the little sea), in Brittany; Taafe-fechan (the little River Taafe), in Wales. In Ireland: Castlebeg (little castle); Downkillybegs (the fortress of the little church); Bunbeg (small river mouth); Rathbeg (little fort).

BEIM,

a contraction of the Ger. bei-dem (by the); e.g. Beimbach, Beimberg, Beimhofen (by the brook, the hill, the court).

BEINN (Gadhelic),
BEN,

a mountain, cognate with the Cym.-Cel. pen; e.g. Beanach (a hilly place); Ben-more (great mountain); Ben-a-buird (table mountain); Ben-a-bhaird (the bard’s mountain); Benan, i.e. Binnean (the peaked hill or pinnacle); Bencleuch (stony mountain); Ben-cruachan (the stack-shaped mountain, cruach); Bendearg (red mountain); Bendronach (the mountain with the hunch, dronnag); Bengloe (the mountain with the covering or veil, gloth); Benamore and Bannmore (the great peaks, beanna, peaks); Bennachie (the hill of the pap, at its summit, ache); Benavoir (the mountain of gold, or), in Jura; Benclibrig (the hill of the playing trout); Benloyal, i.e, Ben-laoghal (the hill of the calves); Ben-na-cailleach (nun’s hill); Ben Lomond, named from Loch Lomond, quod vide; Benmacdhui, i.e. Beinn-na-muc-dubh (the mountain of the black sow); Ben Nevis (the cloud-capped or snowy mountain); Benvenue (the little mountain), as compared with Benledi; Benwyvis (stupendous mountain, uabhasach); Benvrachie (spotted mountain); Benvoirlich (the mountain of the great loch). In Ireland: Benbo, i.e. Beannabo (the peaks of the cows); Dunmanway, in Cork, corrupt. from Dun-na-mbeann (the fortress of the pinnacles). In Ireland ben is more generally applied to small steep hills than to mountains; e.g. Bengore (the peak of the goats, gabhar); Benburb, Lat. pinna superba (proud peak), in Tyrone; the Twelve Pins, i.e. bens or peaks, in Connemara; Banagh and Benagh (a place full of peaks); Bannaghbane and Bannaghroe (white and red hilly ground); Banaghar, King’s Co., and Bangor, Co. Down, anc. Beannchar (the pointed hills or rocks); but Bangor, in Wales, signifies the high choir; Drumbanagh (the ridge of the peaks).

BEL, BELLE, BEAU (Fr.),
BELLO, BELLA (Port., Span., It.),

beautiful, fine, from the Lat. bellus; e.g. Belchamp, Belcastro (beautiful field and camp); Belle-isle and Belile (beautiful island); Beaufort, Beaulieu, Beaumont, Beaumanoir (fine fort, place, mount, manor); Beaumaris (the fair marsh), so named in the reign of Edward I. Some think it may have been formerly Bimaris (between two seas), a name applied by Horace to Corinth; Belvoir (beautiful to see), in Rutland; Bewley and Bewdley, corrupt. from Beaulieu; Beauley, a river and village in Inverness-shire, named from Prioratus-de-bello-loco (the priory of the beautiful place), founded in 1230; Beachy Head, according to Camden, is the head of the beach, but Holland, who published Camden’s Britannia, says it was called Beaucliff, or, more probably, Beauchef (beautiful headland); Beaudesert (beautiful retreat); Belper, i.e. Beau-repaire (with the same meaning), in Warwick and Derbyshire; Leighton-Buzzard, corrupt. of its ancient name Legionbuhr (the fortress of the legion); Balaclava, corrupt. from its ancient name Bella-chiava (the beautiful frontier town, chiave), founded by the Genoese.

BEL, BIALA (Sclav.),

white; e.g. Biela (white stream); Bela, Belaia (white place); Belowes and Belowiz (white village); was or wies (a town or village); Belgrade, Ger. Weissenburg (white fortress); Bialgorod, Turc. Akkermann (white castle); Belki or Bielki (a name applied in Russia to snow-capped mountains); Berat, in Albania, corrupt. from Belgrade (white fort).

BEL, BEAL (Gadhelic),

a mouth, in its literal sense, but in a secondary sense, signifying an entrance into any place. In Ireland it is often united with ath (a ford), forming belatha (ford entrance). The word bel itself is often used to denote a ford; e.g. Belclair, i.e. Bel-an-chlair (the ford or entrance to the plain); Belatha (Anglicised Bella) is found in many names, as in Bellanagare, i.e. Bel-atha-na-gcarr (the ford mouth of the cars); Lisbellaw (the fort at the ford mouth); Bel-atha is often changed in modern names to balli or bally, as if the original root were baile (a town), as in Ballinamore (the mouth of the great ford); Ballinafad (the mouth of the long ford); Ballyshannon is corrupt. from Bel-atha-Seanach (Shannagh’s ford); Belfast, anc. Bel-feirsde (the ford of the farset or sandbank); Ballinaboy, i.e. Bel-an-atha-buide (the mouth of the yellow ford); Ballinasloe, Bel-atha-na-sluaigheadh (the ford mouth of the armies); Bel (a ford) is not found in Scotland, but a word with a kindred meaning as applied to land, bealach (a pass or opening between hills), is frequent there, as well as in Ireland, and takes the form of ballagh or balloch; e.g. Ballaghboy in Ireland, and Ballochbuie in Scotland (the yellow pass); Ballaghmore (great pass); Ballaghkeen (the beautiful pass, cæin); Ballaghadereen (the pass of the little oak grove); Balloch alone occurs in several counties of Scotland, the best known being Balloch, at the entrance to Loch Lomond; Ballochray (smooth pass, reidh); Ballochmyle (the bald or bare pass); Ballochgair (short pass); Ballochcraggan (of the little rock); Balloch-nam-bo (the pass of the cattle), etc.

BELED, or BELAD (Ar.),

a district; e.g. Beled-es-Shurifa (the district of the nobles); Belad-es-Sûdân (the district of the Blacks); Belad-es-Sukkar (sugar district); Belad-t-moghrib (the district of the West), the Arabian name for Morocco, also called Beled-el-Djered (the land of dates); Beled-el-Sham (the district of the north or on the left), the Arabic name for Syria, to distinguish it from Yemen (to the south or right). Syria was also called by the Turks Soristan, and by the Greeks Suria, i.e. the country of Tyre (Tzur, the rock). The word in its secondary sense means prosperous or happy—hence the Greeks called it Αραβια ἡ εὐδαίμων, to distinguish it from Arabia deserta (Ar.), El-Badiah (the desert), hence the Bedawees or Bedouins.

BENDER (Ar.),

a market or harbour. Bender is the name of several towns on the Persian Gulf, and also of a town on the Dniester; Bender-Erekli (the harbour of the ancient Heraclea), on the Black Sea.

BENI (Ar.),

sons of; e.g. Beni-Hassan (a town named from the descendants of Hassan); Beni-Araba (belonging to the sons of the desert); Beni-Calaf (to the sons of the Caliph); Beni-Sham (the sons of Shem), i.e. Syria; Beni-Misr (the land of Mizraim or Egypt).

BERG (Ger.),
BIERG (Scand.),
BRIG, BRAIGH (Celtic),

a hill, a summit; e.g. Ailberg (eagle hill); Bleyberg (lead hill); Schneeberg (snowy hill); Walkenberg (the hill of clouds); Donnersberg (of thunder); Habsberg, Falkenberg, Valkenberg (of hawks); Finsterberg (dark hill); Groenberg (green hill); Teufelsberg (the devil’s hill); Greiffenberg (the griffin’s hill); Geyersberg (of the vulture); Jarlsberg (of the earl); Dreisellberg (the hill of three seats); Kupperberg (copper hill); Heilberg (holy hill); Silberberg (silver hill, near a silver mine); Schoenberg (beautiful hill). The word berg, however, is often applied to the names of towns and fortresses instead of burg; and, when this is the case, it indicates that the town was built on or near a hill, or in connection with a fortress; e.g. Kaiserberg (the hill fort of the Emperor Frederick II.); Würtemberg, anc. Wirtenberg (named from the seignorial chateau, situated upon a hill). The name has been translated (the lord of the hill) from an Old Ger. word wirt (a lord). Heidelberg is a corrupt. of Heydenberg (the hell of the pagans), or from heydel myrtle, which grows in great abundance in the neighbourhood; Lemberg, Lowenburg, or Leopolis (the fortress of Leo Danielowes), in Galicia; Nurnberg, anc. Norimberga or Castrum Noricum (the fortress of the Noricii); Lahnberg (on the R. Lahn); Spermberg (on the Spree); Wittenberg (white fortress); Köningsberg (the king’s fortress), in E. Prussia and in Norway; Bamberg (named after Babe, daughter of the Emperor Otho II.), in Bavaria; Havelberg (on the R. Havel). There are several towns in Germany and Scandinavia called simply Berg or Bergen; e.g. Bergen-op-Zoom (the hill fort on the R. Zoom), in Holland; Bergamo (on a hill), in Italy. Berg (a hill) sometimes takes the form of berry, as in Queensberry, in Dumfries; also of borough, as in Flamborough Head and Ingleborough (the hill of the beacon light). Gebirge signifies a mountain range; e.g. Schneegebirge (the snow-clad range); Siebengebirge (the range of seven hills); Fichtelgebirge (of the pines); Erzegebirge (the ore mountain range); Glasischgebirge (of the glaciers); Eulergebirge (of the owls).

BETH (Heb.),
BEIT (Ar.),

a house; e.g. Bethany (the house of dates); Bethphage (of figs); Bethsaida (of fish); Bethoron (of caves); Bethabara (of the ford); Bethlehem (the house of bread), but its present name, Beit-lahm, means the house of flesh; Bethesda (of mercy); Betharaba (desert dwelling); Bethjesimoth (of wastes); Bethshemish Grk. Heliopolis (the house or city of the sun); its Egyptian name was Aun-i-Aun (light of light), contracted to On; Beit-Allah (the house of God), at Mecca; Beit-el-Fakih (the house of the saint), on the Red Sea.

BETTWS (Cym.-Cel.),

a portion of land lying between a river and a hill, hence a dwelling so situated; e.g. Bettws-yn-y-coed (the dwelling in the wood); Bettws-disserth (the retreat dwelling); Bettws-Garmon (of St. Germanus, where he led the Britons to the famous Alleluia victory over the Saxons); Bettws-Newydd (new dwelling).

BETULA (Lat.),
BOULEAU (Fr.),

the birch-tree; e.g. Le Boulay, La Boulay, Les Boulages, Les Boulus, Belloy (places planted with birch-trees).

BIBER, BEVER (Teut.),
BOBR (Sclav.),

the beaver; e.g. the Biber, Beber, Biberich, Beber-bach (rivers in Germany); Bober, Boberau, Bobronia (beaver river), in Silesia and Russia; Bobersburg (on the R. Bober); Biberschlag (beaver’s wood clearing); Biberstein (beaver rock); Beverley, in Yorkshire, anc. Biberlac (beaver lake), formerly surrounded by marshy ground, the resort of beavers; Beverstone, in Gloucester; Beverloo (beaver marsh), in Belgium.

BILL,

an old German word, signifying plain or level; e.g. Bilderlah (the field of the plain); Billig-ham (level dwelling); Wald-billig (woody plain); Wasser-billig (the watery plain); Bilstein (level rock); Bielefeld (level field); Bieler-see (the lake on the plain).

BIOR (Gadhelic),

water, an element in many river names; e.g. the Bere, in Dorset; Ver, Hereford; Bervie, in Mearns. The town of Lifford, in Donegal, was originally Leith-bhearr (the gray water); Berra, a lake in France; the Ebura or Eure, in Normandy; and in Yorkshire, the Ebro, anc. Iberus; Ivry, in Normandy, anc. Ebarovicus (the town on the Ebura).

BIRCE, BIRKE (Teut.),
BERK, (Lat.) BETULA,
BEORC (A.S.),

the birch-tree; e.g. Birkenhead (the head of the birches); Birchholt (birch wood); Berkeley (birch field); Birchington, Birkhoff (the birch-tree dwelling and court); Birkhampstead (the home place among the birches); Oberbirchen (the upper birches); but Berkshire is not from this root; it was called by the Anglo-Saxons Berroc-shyre, supposed to be named from the abundance of berroc (boxwood), or the bare-oak-shire, from a certain polled oak in Windsor Forest, where the Britons were wont to hold their provincial meetings.

BLAEN (Cym.-Cel.),

the source of a stream; e.g. Blaene-Avon, Blaen-Ayron, Blaen-Hounddu (river sources in Wales); Blaen-porth (the head of the harbour); Blaen-nant (of the brook); Blaen-Bylan, abbreviated from Blaen-pwll-glan (the top of pool bank); Blaen-Sillt, at the top of a small stream, the Sillt, in Wales; Blaen-afon (of the river).

BLAIR, BLAR (Gadhelic),

a plain, originally a battle-field; e.g. Blair-Athole, Blair-Logie, Blair-Gowrie (the battle-field in these districts); Blairmore (the great); Blaircreen (the little plain); Blairdaff (the plain of the oxen, daimh); Blair-burn (of the stream); Blair-craig (of the rock); Blair-linne (of the pool); Blair-beth (of birches); Blair-ingone (the field of spears), in Perthshire; Blair-glass (gray plain); Blarney (little field), in Ireland; Blair-Drummond, Blair-Adam, modern places named after persons.

BLANC (Fr.),
BLANCO (Span.),
BIANCO (It.),
BRANCO (Port.),
BLANC (A.S.),
BLANK (Ger.),

white; e.g. Mont-Blanc, Cape-blanco, Sierra-blanca (white mountain-ridge); Castella-bianca (white castle); Villa-bianca (white town); Blankenburg (white town); Blankenham (white dwelling); Blankenhavn, Blankenloch, Blankenrath, Blankenese (white haven, place, wood-clearing, cape), in Germany; Bianchi-mandri (white sheep-folds), in Sicily; Branco (the white stream), in Brazil; Los-Brancos (the white mountains); Cata-branca (the white cove); Casa-branca (the white house), in Brazil.

BLISKO (Sclav.),

near; e.g. Bliesdorf, Bliesendorf, Blieskendorf (near village); Bliskau (near meadow).

BLOTO, BLATT (Sclav.),

a marsh; e.g. Blotto, Blottnitz (marshy land); Wirchen-blatt (high marsh); Sa-blatt, Sablater, Zablatt (behind the marsh); Na-blatt (near the marsh). In some cases the b in this word is changed into p, as in Plotsk and Plattkow (the marshy place); Plattensee or Balaton (the lake in the marshy land).

BOCA (Span., Port., and It.),

a mouth—in topography, the narrow entrance of a river or bay; e.g. Boca-grande, Boca-chica (great and little channel), in South America; La Bochetta (the little opening), a mountain pass in the Apennines; Desemboque (the river mouth), in Brazil.

BOD (Cym.-Cel.),

a dwelling; e.g. Bodmin, in Cornwall, corrupt. from Bodminian (the dwelling of monks); Bodffaris (the site of Varis), the old Roman station on the road to Chester; Hafod, the name of several places in Wales, corrupt. from Hafbod (a summer residence); Bosher or Bosherston, corrupt. from Bod and hir, long (the long ridge abode), in Wales.

BODDEN (Teut.), BOD (Scand.),

a bay, the ocean swell; e.g. Bodden (an arm of the sea which divides the island of Rugen from Pomerania); Bodden-ness (the headland of the bay), on the east coast of Scotland.

BODEN (Ger.),

the ground, soil—in topography, a meadow; e.g. Gras-boden (grassy meadow); Dunkel-boden (dark meadow). It may sometimes, however, be used instead of bant or paint—v. p. 18; and in Bodenburg, in Brunswick, it is a corrupt. of Ponteburg (bridge town); and Bodenheim is from a personal name, like Bodensee—v. SEE.

BOGEN (Ger.),

a bend or bow—in topography, applied to the bend of a river; e.g. Bogen, anc. Bogana (the bending river); Bogen, a town of Bavaria, on a bend of the Danube; Ellbogen or Ellenbogen, Lat. Cubitus (the town on the elbow or river bend), in Bohemia; Bogenhausen (the houses on the river bend); Langen-bogen (the long bend); Entli-buch (the bend on the R. Entle), in Switzerland.

BOLD, BATTLE, or BOTTLE,
BÜTTEL, BLOD (Teut.),
BOL, or BO (Scand.),

a dwelling; e.g. Newbattle, Newbottle, Newbold (new dwelling), as distinguished from Elbottle (old dwelling); Morebattle (the dwelling on the marshy plain); Bolton, in Lancashire, A.S. Botl; Buittle, in Kirkcudbright; Newbald, Yorkshire; Harbottle (the dwelling of the army, here), a place in Northumberland where, in former times, soldiers were quartered; Erribold (the dwelling on the tongue of land, eir); Maybole, in Ayrshire, anc. Minnibole (the dwelling on the mossy place, Cym.-Cel., myswn); Exnabul, in Shetland (a place for keeping cattle); yxn, Scand. (a bull or cow); Walfenbuttel (the dwelling of Ulpha); Brunsbottle (of Bruno); Ritzbüttel (of Richard); Griesenbottel (sandy dwelling); Rescbüttel (the dwelling among rushes).

BONUS (Lat.),
BUEN (Span.),
BOA,
BOM (Port.),

good; e.g. Bonavista, Boavista (good view); Buenos-Ayres (good breezes), in South America; Buenaventura (good luck), in California.

BOOM (Sansc.),

Bhuma (land, country); e.g. Birboom (the land of heroes); Arya-Bhuma (the noble land), the Sanscrit name for Hindostan.

BOR (Sclav.),

wood; e.g. Bohra, Bohrau, Borowa, Borow (woody place); Borovsk (the town in the wood); Sabor and Zaborowa (behind the wood); Borzna (the woody district); the Borysthenes, now the R. Dnieper (the woody wall), from stena (a wall or rampart), the banks of the river having been covered with wood; Ratibor (the wood of the Sclavonic god Razi).

BRACHE (Teut.),
BRAK (Scand.),

land broken up for tillage, Old Ger. pracha (to plough); e.g. Brabant, anc. Bracbant (the ploughed district); Brachstadt, Brachfeld, Brachrade (the ploughed place, field, clearing); Brakel (the ploughed land), in Holland; Hohenbrack (high ploughed land).

BRAND (Ger.),

a place cleared of wood by burning; e.g. Eber-brand and Ober-brand (the upper clearing); Newen-brand and Alten-brand (the old and new clearing); Brandenburg (the burned city), so called, according to Buttman, by the Germans; by the Wends corrupted into Brennabor, and in their own language named Schorelitz (the destroyed city), because, in their mutual wars, it had been destroyed by fire. Bran and Brant, in English names, are probably memorials of the original proprietors of the places, as in Brandon, Cumbran, Brandeston; Brantingham (the home of the children of Brand)—v. ING, INGEN.

BRASA (Sclav.),
BERESA,

the birch-tree; e.g. Briesnitz, Beresoff, Beresek, Beresenskoi, Beresovoi (places where birches abound); Gross-Briesen (great birch-tree town); Bresinchen (little Briesen), a colony from it; Birsa and Beresina (the birch-tree river); Birsk, a town on the R. Birsa; Brzesce-Litewski (the house of mercy at the birches); the letter b in this word is often changed into p by the Germans, as in Presinitz for Brezenice (birch-tree village), in Bohemia; also Priebus, with the same meaning, in Silesia; Priegnitz, i.e. the town of the Brizanen (dwellers among birches); Briezen (the place of birches), in Moravia, is Germanised into Friedeck (woody corner); Bryezany (abounding in birches), in Galicia.

BRAY (Cel.),

damp ground, a marshy place; e.g. Bray, in Normandy; Bray sur Somme and Bray sur Seine, situated on these rivers; Bray-Maresch, near Cambray; Bré Côtes-de-Nord; Bray-la-Campagne (calvados, etc.)

BREIT (Ger.),
BRAD (A.S.),
BRED (Scand.),

broad; brede, Dutch (a plain); e.g. Breitenbach and Bredenbeke (broad brook); Breda (the flat meadowland), in Holland; Breitenbrunn (broad well); Breitenstein, Breitenburg (broad fortress); Bradford, in Yorkshire, and Bredevoort, in Holland (broad ford); Bredy (the broad water), in Dorset; Brading, in Isle of Wight, and Bradley (broad meadow); Bradshaw (broad thicket); Broadstairs, corrupt. from its ancient name Bradstow (broad place).

BRIA (Thracian),

a town; e.g. Selymbria, Mesymbria.

BRIGA (Cel.),
BRIVA,

a general name among the Celts for a town—so called, apparently, from the Celtic words braigh, brugh, brig (a heap, pile, or elevation), because the nucleus of towns, among uncivilised tribes in early times, were merely fortified places erected on heights; cognate with the Teut. and Scand. burg, byrig, the Sclav. brieg (an embankment or ridge), and the Scottish brae (a rising ground). Hence the name of the Brigantes (dwellers on hills); the word Brigand (literally, a mountaineer); Briançon, anc. Brigantium (the town on the height); Brieg, a town in Silesia; Braga and Bragança, fortified cities in Portugal; Talavera, in Spain, anc. Tala-briga, the town on the tala, Span. (a wood clearing); Bregenz, anc. Brigantium, in the Tyrol; Breisach Alt and Neuf (the old and new town on the declivity), in the duchy of Baden—the old fortress was situated on an isolated basalt hill; Brixen (the town among the hills), in the Tyrol. In Scotland there are Braemar (the hilly district of Mar); Braidalbane (the hill country of Albainn, i.e. Scotland); Braeriach (the gray mountain, riabhach); the Brerachin, a river and district in Perthshire; Brugh and Bruighean, in Ireland, signifying originally a hill, was subsequently applied to a palace or a distinguished residence. The term, as applied to the old residences, presupposed the existence of a fortified brugh or rath, several of which still remain. The word has suffered many corruptions: thus Bruree, in Limerick, is from Brugh-righ (the king’s fort); and Bruighean (little fort) has been transformed into Bruff, Bruis, Bruce, or Bryan. The word briva, on the other hand, was generally applied to towns situated on rivers—as in Amiens, anc. Samarabrina, on the R. Somme—and was gradually used as synonymous with pons (bridge), as in Pontoise, anc. Briva-Isara (the bridge on the Ouse); Briare, anc. Brivodurum (the bridge over the water); Brionde, anc. Brives.

BRINK (Ger.),

a grassy ridge; e.g. Osterbrink (east ridge); Mittelbrink (middle ridge); Zandbrink (sand ridge); Brinkhorst (the ridge of the thicket).

BRO (Cym.-Cel.),

a district; e.g. Broburg (the fort of the district), in Warwickshire; Pembroke (the head, pen, of the district, it being the land’s end of Wales).

BROC (A.S.),

a rushing stream; e.g. Cranbrook (the stream of the cranes); Wallbrook (probably the stream at the wall); Wambrook (Woden’s stream).

BROC (A.S.),
BROX,

the badger; e.g. Brox-bourne and Broxburn, Brogden, Brokenhurst, Brockley, Broxholme (the stream, hollow, thicket, meadow, and hill of the badger).

BROD (Sclav.),

a ford; e.g. Brod and Brody (at the ford), the name of several towns in Moravia, Bohemia, Hungary, and Turkey; Brod-sack (ford dwelling); Brod-Ungarisch (the Hungarian ford), on the Olsawa; Brod-Deutsch (the German ford), on the Sasawa; Brod-Bohmisch (the Bohemian ford), on the Zembera; Krasnabrod (beautiful ford); Eisenbrod (the ford of the Iser); Brodkowitz (ford station).

BROEK, BRUOCH (Teut.),

a marsh; e.g. Broek, a town in Holland; Bogen-brok (the bending marsh); Breiden-bruch (the broad marsh); Aalten-broek (the old marsh); Eichen-bruch (the oak marsh); Broekem and Broickhausen (marsh dwelling); Bruchmühle (the mill on the marsh); Brussels or Bruxelles, anc. Bruoch-sella (the seat or site on the marsh); Oberbruch and Niederbruch (upper and lower marsh).

BROG (Sclav.),
BROW,

a dam; e.g. Biesenbrow and Priebrow, from Pschibrog (elder-tree dam), by the Germans called Furstenberg, on the Oder; Colberg, Sclav. Kola-brog (around the dam).

BRON (Welsh),

the slope or side of a hill; e.g. Brongest (the slope of the cest or deep glen); Bronwydd (the slope covered with trees); Wydd, in Wales.

BRÜCKE (Ger.),
BRIGGE (A.S.),
BRO, BRU (Scand.),

a bridge; e.g. Brugg-Furstenfeld (the bridge at the prince’s field); Brugg-an-der-Leitha (the bridge across the Leitha); Brugg-kloster (the bridge at the monastery); Langenbrück, Langenbrücken (long bridge); Bruges, in Belgium (a city with many bridges); Saarbrook (on the R. Saar); Osnaburg, in Hanover, anc. Osnabrücke or Asenbrücke (the bridge on the R. Ase); Voklabrück (on the R. Vökle); Bruchsal, in Baden (the bridge on the Salzbach); Zweibrücken or Deux-ponts (the two bridges); Zerbruggen (at the bridge). In England: Bridgenorth, anc. Brugge-Morfe (the bridge at the wood called Morfe, on the opposite bank of the Severn); Brixham, Brixworth, and Brigham (bridge town); Brixton, A.S. Brixges-stan (the bridge stone); Cambridge, Cel. Caer-Grant (the fort and bridge on the R. Granta, now the Cam); Tunbridge (over the R. Tun or Ton), a branch of the Medway; Colebrook, in Bucks (the bridge over the R. Cole); Oxbridge (the bridge over the water, uisge); Staley-bridge (at a bridge over the R. Tame), named after the Staveleigh, a family who resided there; Bridgewater, corrupt. from Burgh-Walter (the town of Walter Douay, its founder); Bridgend and Brigham, villages in different parts of Scotland; Brora (bridge river), in Sutherlandshire, named when bridges were rarities; Trowbridge, however, did not get its name from this root, but is a corrupt. of its ancient name, Trutha-burh (the loyal town).

BRÜEL (Teut.),
BRÜHL,

a marshy place, overgrown with brushwood, cognate with the French breuil and bruyère (a thicket), the Welsh pryskle, and the Breton brügek; e.g. Bruel, Bruhl, and Priel, in Germany; Bruyères, Broglie, and Brouilly (the thicket), in France; also Breuil, Bruel, Breuillet, Le Brulet, etc., with the same meaning, or sometimes a park. St. Denis du Behellan, in Eure, was formerly Bruellant, i.e. the breuil or park of Herland.

BRUNN, BRUNNEN (Ger.),
BRONGA (Scand.),

a well, especially a mineral well; e.g. Heilbroun (holy well); Frau-brunnen, Lat. Fons-beatæ-Virginis (the well of Our Lady); Brunn-am-Gebirge (the well at the hill-ridge); Haupt-brun (well-head); Lauter-brunnen (clear well); Salz-brunn, Warm-brunn, Schoen-brunn, Kaltenbrunn (the salt, hot, beautiful, cold, mineral wells); Baldersbrunnen, Baldersbrond (the well of the Teutonic god Balder); Cobern, corrupt. from Cobrunnen (the cow’s well); Paderborn (the well or source of the R. Pader), in Germany. In the north of France, and in the departments bordering on Germany, we find traces of this German word; e.g. Mittel-broun (middle well); Walsch-broun (foreign well); Belle-brune (beautiful well); Stein-brunn (stony well), etc.

BRYN (Cym.-Cel.),

a hill-ridge; bron (a round hill); e.g. Brincroes, Brin-eglwys, Bron-llys (the cross, church, palace, on the hill); Bryn-gwynn (fair hill); Brynn-uchil (high hill); Bron-Fraidd (St. Bridget’s hill); Brown-Willy, in Cornwall, corrupt. from Bryn-huel (the tin mine ridge); Brindon-hill, in Somerset (merely the hill), with synonymous word dun added to Bryn; and Brandon, in Suffolk, with the same meaning; Bryn-mawr (the great hill), in Wales; Bron-gwyn (white hill); Bryn-y-cloddian (the hill of fences, clawd), so called from its strong fortifications; Bryn-Barlwm (the bare-topped mountain); Bryn-Gwyddon (the hill of Gwyddon, a mythological philosopher); Bryn-kinallt (a mountain without trees); Bryn-berian (the kite’s hill, beri, a kite); Bryn-bo, with the same meaning, boda in Wales; Bryn-chwarew (the hill of sports); here the ancient inhabitants of Wales used to meet to play different games in competition; Brienne-la-château (the castle on the hill), in France; Brientz, in Switzerland, on the Brienz See (a lake surrounded by hills); Brendenkopf (hill-head), and the Brennen Alps, the culminating points in the mountains of Tyrol.

BUCHE (Ger.),
BOC (A.S.),
BOG (Scand.),
BUK (Sclav.),

the beech-tree; e.g. Buch-au, Buch-berg, Buch-egg (the meadow, hill, corner of the beeches); Buchholtz and Bochholt (beech-wood); Bockum, Bucheim (beech-dwelling); Butchowitz (the place of beeches), in Moravia; Bochnia and Buchowina (with the same meaning), in Poland; Bickleigh (beech-meadow). But Bocking in Essex, and the county of Buckingham, as well as Bouquinheim in Artois, and Bochingen in Wurtemberg, were named from the Bocingas (a tribe), probably the dwellers among beeches.

BUDA, BUS (Sclav.),
BWTH, BOTH (Gadhelic),
BOD (Cym.-Cel.),
BUDE (Ger.),
BOTHY (Scotch),
BOT (Brez.),

a hut or dwelling; e.g. Budin, Budzin, Bautzen, or Budissen (the huts); Budweis (the district of hut villages), in Bohemia; Budzow, Botzen (the place of huts); Briebus (birch-tree dwelling); Trebus and Triebus (the three dwellings); Putbus (under the hut); Dobberbus (good dwelling, dobry, good); but Buda, in Hungary, took its name from Buda, the brother of Attila, as well as Bud-var and Bud-falva (Buda’s fort and village). The island of Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, is said to have derived its name from the bwth or cell of St. Brandon, but its earlier name was Rothsay, from a descendant of Simon Brek (i.e. Rother’s Isle), while its Gaelic name is Baile-Mhoide (the dwelling of the court of justice); Bothwell, anc. Both-uill (the dwelling on the angle of the R. Clyde). In Ireland we meet with Shanboe, Shanbogh (the old hut, sean); Raphae, in Donegal, is Rath-both (the fort of the huts); Bodoney, in Tyrone, is Both-domhnaigh (the tent of the church); Knockboha (the hill of the hut); Bodmin, in Cornwall, anc. Bodmanna, p. 27 (the abode of monks, the site of an ancient priory); Merfod, corrupt. from Meudwy-bod (the dwelling of a hermit); Bodysgallen (the abode of the thistle, ysgallen); and Bod-Ederyryn (Edryn’s dwelling). In Lancashire the word takes the form of booth, as in Barrowford booth and Oakenhead booth, etc.

BÜHIL, BÜCKEL (Ger.),

a hill; e.g. Dombühil (the dwelling on the hill); Grünbühill (green hill); Eichenbühil (oak hill); Birchenbühil (birch hill); Holzbühil (wood hill); Dinkelsbühil (wheat hill); Kleinbühil (little hill).

BÜHNE, BÖHEN (Ger.),

a scaffold, sometimes in topography a hill; e.g. Hartböhen (wood hill); Bündorf (hill village); Osterbeuna (east hill).

BUN (Gadhelic),

the foot, in topography applied to the mouth of a river; e.g. Bunduff (at the mouth of the dark river, dubh); Bunderan and Bunratty, the mouth of the R. Dowran and Ratty; Bunowen (at the mouth of the water). The town of Banff is a corrupt. of Bunaimh (the mouth of the river); Bunawe (at the opening of Loch Awe); Buness (of the cascade, cas).

BURG, BURGH (Teut.),
BOROUGH, BURY,
BORG (Scand.),
BOURG (Fr.),
BORGO (It. and Span.),