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Latin loan-words in Old English place-names

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Margaret Gelling
Margaret Gelling
Affiliation:
Birmingham, England
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Extract

An article I published in 1967 on place-names derived from OE wīchām aroused interest among philologists, historians and archaeologists, and it continues to be quoted. This response suggests that the material is of genuine significance; but some of the conclusions drawn in 1967 are now in need of revision. The aim of the present article is to offer some further thoughts about OE wīchām and to draw attention to some other types of place-name which may have a similar historical significance. The place-name elements camp and funta are particularly promising and some names which contain port and ecles deserve consideration. All the names discussed are plotted on fig. 1 (p. 6).

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 6 , December 1977 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

page 1 note 1 Margaret, Gelling, ‘English Place-Names Derived from the Compound wichām’, MA II (1967), 87–104Google Scholar. Repr. in Place-Name Evidence for the Anglo-Saxon Invasion and Scandinavian Settlements: Eight Studies, ed. Kenneth, Cameron, EPNS (1975), pp. 8–26.Google Scholar

page 1 note 2 E.g. The Agrarian History of England and Wales, ed. Finberg, H. P. R. I. ii (Cambridge, 1972), 260Google Scholar n. and 424; and Frank, Emery, The Oxfordshire Landscape (London, 1974), pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

page 1 note 3 See the postscript to the reprint of ‘English Place-Names’. Dr Cyril Hart has identified a form Hinawicun, dated c. 1000, with Wickham St Pauls, and this means that the name is under suspicion of being derived (like High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire) from wīcum, dat. pl. of wīc. This would equate it with Wyken, Warwickshire, Wykin, Leicestershire, and a number of instances of Wicken, and no special connection with Roman settlements is claimed for any of these.

page 1 note 4 Smith, A. H., The Place-Names of Gloucestershire, EPNS 38–4, (Cambridge 1964–1965), Pt 3. p. 162Google Scholar and Pt 2, p. 81. The names are Wykham (1316) in the parish of Maisemore, and Wikeham (1424) in Deerhurst. The addition of these to the Hempstead field-name Wycham (1263–84), which was noted in 1967, gives a noteworthy concentration in the region dominated by Gloucester and Cirencester.

page 2 note 1 Joseph, J. K. St, ‘Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1965–;1968’, Jnl of Roman Stud. 59 (1969), 128Google Scholar and pl. VI. This note gives the area as ‘about 15 acres’, but subsequent communications from local archaeologists have given larger estimates. See also below, p. 3, n. 1.

page 2 note 2 Martin, Millett, ‘The Native Towns of Roman Britain’, CA 52 (05 1976), 137–8.Google Scholar

page 2 note 3 Warwick, Rodwell, ‘Trinovantian Towns and Their Setting: A Case Study’, Small Towns of Roman Britain, ed. Rodwell, W. and Rowley, T., British Archaeological Reports 15 (Oxford, 1975), p. 87Google Scholar, and C. R. Partridge, ‘Braughing’, ibid.. 139–57 esp. fig. 3, p. 143.

page 3 note 1 Todd, M., ‘The Vici of Western England’, The Roman West Country, ed. Branigan, K. and Fowler, P. J. (Newton Abbot, 1976), p. 112.Google Scholar

page 3 note 2 Margary, I. D., Roman Roads in Britain 1 (London, 1955), 133–4.Google Scholar

page 3 note 3 ‘Vici in Lowland Britain’, Small Towns, pp. 75–84.

page 4 note 1 Ibid. 99.

page 5 note 1 Margaret, Gelling, The Place-Names of Berkshire, EPNS 49–51 (Cambridge, 1973–1976), pt 2, map II and pt 3, p. 803.Google Scholar

page 5 note 2 Small Towns, p. 98.

page 8 note 1 Ekwall, E., The Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th ed. (Oxford, 1960), p. 190Google Scholar; Stenton, F. M., ‘England in the Sixth Century’, TRHS 4th ser. 21 (1939)Google Scholar, repr. in Preparatory to ‘Anglo-Saxon England’, ed. Stenton, D. M. (Oxford, 1970), p. 263Google Scholar; Smith, A. H., English Place-Name Elements, EPNS 25–6 (Cambridge, 1956), Pt 1, p. 189.Google Scholar

page 8 note 2 Elements, pt I, p. 589.

page 10 note 1 By A. H. Smith, ibid. 72.

page 10 note 2 Ekwall, , Dictionary, p. 373Google Scholar; Smith, , Elements, Pt 2, p. 70.Google Scholar

page 10 note 3 Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1970), p. 20, n. 2.Google Scholar

page 11 note 1 See esp. Kenneth, Cameron, ‘Eccles in English Place-Names’, Chrisitianity in Britain 300–700 ed. Barley, M. W. and Hanson, R. P. C. (Leicester, 1968), pp. 87–92Google Scholar, repr. in Place-Name Evidence, ed. Cameron, , pp. 1–7Google Scholar; and Barrow, G. W. S., The Kingdom of the Scots (London, 1973), pp. 26–7 and 34–9.Google Scholar

page 12 note 1 E.g.Smith, , Elements, Pt 1, pp. 79 and 86.Google Scholar

page 13 note 1 Myres, J. N. L., Anglo-Saxon Pottery and the Settlement of England (Oxford, 1969), ch. v.Google Scholar