A Dictionary of English Place-Names (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Rating:
Summary: He looks in only one direction for his etymologies
Review: For a while now, I have been noticing, to my displeasure, that the study of etymology - which ought to be a scholarly pursuit - is frequently motivated by a catch-all nationalism that seeks to ascribe as much as possible to a favoured language. For instance, in his recent DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL WELSH LEGEND, Peter Bartrum tries, disastrously, to ascribe the obviously English name Gwenfrewi (Winifred) to Welsh origins; which is total nonsense. The same is true of this otherwise pleasant work of reference, which seems incapable of recognizing any word root that is not Anglo-Saxon. For instance: in the highly Romanized far south of the country, we find three villages in a valley (Latin UALLIS) Over, Middle and Nether Wallop. Listen to the desperate shifts to which Mills commits himself rather than suggest that the Valley of Wallop might have preserved a Latin root: "Possibly 'Valley with a spring or stream', Old English WELLA, WAELLA+HOP. Alternatively, the first element may be Old English WEALL 'a wall' or WALU 'a ridge, an embankment'." Not UALLIS, then? Uh-uh. Guess not. Even worse are the etymologies proposed for Costessey ("Island, or dry ground in marsh, of a man called *Cost"; the name being "Old English, or perhaps Scandinavian") or Antingham ("Homestead of the family or followers of a man called *Anta" - the strange "Anta" being ascribed without hesitation to Old English). Sir, I have two personal names for you: Constantine and Anthony. Is it really so difficult to imagine that they might have been known in post-Roman Britain? Place-name evidence shows that the conquering English allowed the conquered Britons certain amounts of land, some of which - the various Waltons - bear their ethnic name to this day. We also know that Latin names that did cross over into English tended to lose their final syllable - DUROVERNUM into DOR[CHESTER], AUGUSTA into AUST - and John Morris has made a credible suggestion that the Latin name AMBROSIUS survived in various Central and Southern English place-names in AMBER- ; Ambrosden, Amberley, Ambersham, Amblecote, Arminghall. So why should Costessey not pertain to the popular British name Constantine, or Antingham to an otherwise unknown Anthony - or indeed, for that matter, to an Antistes or Bishop? No reason at all, really; except the need to ascribe everything and his brother to the Anglo-Saxons, even at the cost of inventing AS names that are testified nowhere and make no sense whatever in Old English. The names I have singled out are only two out of dozens. Until Dr.Mills has uprooted the nationalism from his mind, I do not feel that I can conscientiously recommend this dictionary.