The Romance of Names Part 20

The word road was not used in its current sense during the surname period, but meant the art of riding, and specifically a raid or inroad. Therefore the name Roades is unconnected with it and represents merely a variant of Royds (Chapter XII). This name and its compounds belong essentially to the north, the prevailing spelling, Rhodes, being artificial. It has no connection with the island of Rhodes.

The meaning of Street has changed considerably since the days when Icknield Street and Watling Street were great national roads. It is now used exclusively of town thoroughfares, and has become such a mere suffix that, while we speak of the Oxford Road, we try to suppress the second word in Ox'ford Street. To street belong our place-names and surnames in Strat-, Stret-, etc., e.g. Stratton, Stretton, Stredwick.

Way has a number of compounds with intrusive _a_, e.g. Challaway, Dallaway (dale), Greenaway, Hathaway (heath), Westaway. But Hanway is the name of a country (Chapter XI), and Otway, Ottoway, is Old Fr.

Otouet, a dim. of Odo. Shipway is for sheep-way. In the north of England the streets in a town are often called gates (Scand.). It is impossible to distinguish the compounds of this gate from those of the native gate, a barrier (Chapter XIII), e.g. Norgate may mean North Street or North Gate.

Alley and Court both exist as surnames, but the former is for a'lee, i.e. Atlee (Chapter XII), and the latter is from court in the sense of mansion, country house. The curious spelling Caught may be seen over a shop in Chiswick. Rowe (Chapter I) sometimes means row of houses, but in Townroe the second element is identical with Wray (Chapter XIII). Cosway, Cossey, is from causeway, Fr. chaussee; and Twitchers, Twitch.e.l.l represent dialect words used of a narrow pa.s.sage and connected with the Mid. English verb twiselen, to fork, or divide; Twiss must be of similar origin, for we find Robert del twysse in 1367. Cf. Birtwistle and Entwistle. With the above may be cla.s.sed the west-country Shute, a narrow street; Vennell, a north-country word for alley, Fr. venelle, dim. of Lat. versa, vein; Wynd, a court, also a north-country word, probably from the verb wind, to twist; and the cognate Went, a pa.s.sage--

"Thorugh a goter, by a prive wente."

(Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 788.)

WATER

Names derived from artificial watercourses are Channell, now replaced as a common noun by the learned form ca.n.a.l; Condy or Cundy, for the earlier Cunditt, conduit; Gott, cognate with gut, used in Yorkshire for the channel from a mill-dam, and in Lincolnshire for a water-drain on the coast; Lade, Leete, connected with the verb to lead; and sometimes Sh.o.r.e (Chapter XII), which was my grandfather's p.r.o.nunciation of sewer. From weir, lit. a protection, precaution, cognate with beware and Ger. wehren, to protect, we have not only Weir, but also Ware, Warr, Wear, and the more pretentious Delawarr.

The latter name pa.s.sed from an Earl Delawarr to a region in North America, and thus to Fenimore Cooper's n.o.ble red men. But this group of names must sometimes be referred to the Domesday wars, an outlying potion of a manor. Lock is more often a land name, to be cla.s.sed with Hatch (Chapter XIII), but was also used of a water-gate. Key was once the usual spelling of quay. The curious name Keylock is a perversion of Kellogg, Mid. Eng. Kill-hog. Port seldom belongs here, as the Mid.

English is almost always de la Porte, i.e. Gates. From well we have a very large number of compounds, e.g. Cauldwell (cold), Halliwell, the variants of which, Holliwell, Hollowell, probably all represent Mid.

Eng. hali, holy. Here belongs also Winch, from the device used for drawing water from deep wells.

BUILDINGS

The greater number of the words to be dealt with under this heading enter into the composition of specific place-names. A considerable number of surnames are derived from the names of religious buildings, usually from proximity rather than actual habitation. Such names are naturally of Greco-Latin origin, and were either introduced directly into Anglo-Saxon by the missionaries, or were adopted later in a French form after the Conquest. It has already been noted (Chapter I) that Abbey is not always what it seems; but in some cases it is local, from Fr, abbaye, of which the Provencal form Abadie was introduced by the Huguenots. We find much earlier Abdy, taken straight from the Greco-Lat. abbatia. The famous name Chantrey is for chantry, Armitage was once the regular p.r.o.nunciation of Hermitage, and Chappell a common spelling of Chapel--

"Also if you finde not the word you seeke for presently after one sort of spelling, condemne me not forthwith, but consider how it is used to be spelled, whether with double or single letters, as Chappell, or Chapell" (Holyoak, Latin Dict., 1612).

We have also the Norman form Capel, but this may be a nickname from Mid. Eng. capel, nag--

"Why nadstow (hast thou not) pit the capul in the lathe (barn)?" (A, 4088.)

A Galilee was a chapel or porch devoted to special purposes--

"Those they pursued had taken refuge in the galilee of the church"

(Fair Maid of Perth, ch. ix.).

The tomb of the Venerable Bede is in the Galilee of Durham Cathedral.

I had a schoolfellow with this uncommon name, now generally perverted to Galley. In a play now running (Feb. 1913) in London, there is a character named Sanctuary, a name found also in Crockford and the London Directory.

I have only once come across the contracted form Sentry [Footnote: On the development in meaning of this word, first occurring in the phrase "to take sentrie," i.e. refuge, see my Romance of Words, ch. vii.]

(Daily Telegraph, Dec. 26, 1912), and then under circ.u.mstances which might make quotation actionable. Purvis is Mid. Eng. parvis, a porch, Greco-Lat. paradises. It may be the same as Provis, the name selected by Mr. Magwitch on his return from the Antipodes (Great Expectations, ch. xl.), unless this is for Provost. Porch and Portch both occur as surnames, but Porcher is Fr. porcher, a swineherd, and Portal is a Huguenot name. Churcher and Kirker, Churchman and Kirkman, are usually local; cf. Bridges and Bridgman.

The names Temple and Templeman were acquired from residence near one of the preceptories of the Knights Templars, and Spittlehouse (Chapter III) is sometimes to be accounted for in a similar way (Knights of the Hospital). We even find the surname Tabernacle. Musters is Old Fr.

moustiers (moutiers), common in French place-names, from Lat.

monasterium. The word bow, still used for an arch in some old towns, has given the names Bow and Bowes. A medieval statute, recently revived to baffle the suffragettes, was originally directed against robbers and "pillers," i.e. plunderers, but the name Piller is also for pillar; cf. the French name Colonise. With these may be mentioned b.u.t.tress and Carvell, the latter from Old Fr. carnet (creneau), a battlement.

As general terms for larger dwellings we find Hall, House, also written Hose, and Seal, the last-named from the Teutonic original which has given Fr. Lasalle, whence our surname Sale. To the same cla.s.s belong Place, Plaice, as in c.u.mnor Place.

The possession of such surnames does not imply ancestral possession of Haddon Hall, Stafford House, etc., but merely that the founder of the family lived under the shadow of greatness. In compounds -house is generally treated as in "workus," e.g. Bacchus (Chapter VIII), Bellows, Brewis, Duffus (dove), Kirkus, Loftus, Malthus, Windus (wynd, Chapter XIII). In connection with Woodhouse it must be remembered that this name was given to the man who played the part of a "wild man of the woods" in processions and festivities. William Power, skinner, called "Wodehous," died in London in 1391. Of similar origin is Greenman. The tavern sign of the Green Man is sometimes explained as representing a forester in green, but it was probably at first equivalent to the German sign "Zum wilden Mann." Ca.s.sell is sometimes for Castle, but is more often a local German name of recent introduction. The northern Peel, a castle, as in the Isle of Man, was originally applied to a stockade, Old Fr. pel (pieu), a stake, Lat.

Palos. Hence also Peall, Peile. Keep comes from the central tower of the castle, where the baron and his family kept, i.e. lived. A moated Grange is a poetic figment, for the word comes from Fr, grange, a barn (to Lat. granum); hence Granger.

With Mill and the older Milne (Chapter II) we may compare Mullins, Fr.

Desmoulins. Barnes is sometimes, but not always, what it seems (Chapter XXI). With it we may put Leathes, from an obsolete Scandinavian word for barn (see quot. Chapter XIII), to which we owe also the names Leatham and Latham. Mr. Oldbuck's "ecstatic description" of the Roman camp with its praetorium was spoilt by Edie Ochiltree's disastrous interruption

"Praetorian here, praetorian there, I mind the bigging o't."

(Antiquary, ch. iv.).

DWELLINGS

The obsolete verb to big, i.e. build, whence Biggar, a builder, has given us Biggins, Biggs (Chapter III), and Newbigging, while from to build we have Newbould and Newbolt. Cazenove, Ital. casa nuova, means exactly the same. Probably related to build is the obsolete Bottle, a building, whence Harbottle. A humble dwelling was called a Board--

Borde, a little house, lodging, or cottage of timber (Cotgrave)--

whence Boardman, Border. Other names were Booth, Lodge, and Folley, Fr. feuillee, a hut made of branches--

"Feuillee, an arbor, or bower, framed of leav'd plants, or branches"

(Cotgrave).

Scale, possibly connected with shealing, is a Scandinavian word used in the north for a shepherd's hut, hence the surname Scales. Bower, which now suggests a leafy arbour, had no such sense in Mid. English.

Chaucer says of the poor widow--

"Ful sooty was hir bour and eek hire halle."

(B, 4022.)

Hence the names Bowerman, Boorman, Burman.

But the commonest of names for a humble dwelling was cot or cote

Born and fed in rudenesse

As in a cote or in an oxe stalle

(E, 397)

the inhabitant of which was a Colman, Cotter, or, diminutively, Cottrell, Cotterill. Hence the frequent occurrence of the name Coates.

There are also numerous compounds, e.g. Alcott (old), Norcott, Kingscote, and the many variants of Caldecott, Calcott, the cold dwelling, especially common as a village name in the vicinity of the Roman roads. It is supposed to have been applied, like Coldharbour, to deserted posts. The name Cotton is sometimes from the dative plural of the same word, though, when of French origin, it represents Colon, dim. of Cot, aphetic for Jacot.

Names such as Kitchin, Spence, a north-country word for pantry (Chapter XX), and Mews, originally applied to the hawk-coops (see Mewer, Chapter XV), point to domestic employment. The simple Mew, common in Hampshire, is a bird nickname. Scammell preserves an older form of shamble(s), originally the benches on which meat was exposed for sale. The name Currie, or Curry, is too common to be referred entirely to the Scot. Corrie, a mountain glen, or to Curry in Somerset, and I conjecture that it sometimes represents Old French and Mid. Eng. curie, a kitchen, which is the origin of Petty Cury in Cambridge and of the famous French name Curie. Nor can Furness be derived exclusively from the Furness district of Lancashire. It must sometimes correspond to the common French name Dufour, from four, oven. We also have the name Ovens. Stables, when not identical with Staples (Chapter XIII), belongs to the same cla.s.s as Mews. Chambers, found in Scotland as Chalmers, is official, the medieval de la Chambre often referring to the Exchequer Chamber of the City of London.

Bellchambers has probably no connection with this word. It appears to be an imitative spelling of Belencombre, a place near Dieppe, for the entry de Belenc.u.mbre is of frequent occurrence.

Places of confinement are represented by Gale, gaol (Chapter III), Penn, whence Inkpen (Berkshire), Pond, Pound, and Penfold or Pinfold.

But Gales is also for Anglo-Fr. Galles, Wales. b.u.t.ts may come from the archery ground, while b.u.t.t is generally to be referred to the French name Bout (Chapter VII) or to Budd (Chapter VII). Cordery, for de la corderie, of the rope-walk, has been confused with the much more picturesque Corderoy, i.e. coeur de roi.