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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
for office being clothed in white robes to signify their purity ; which practice , if used in the present day , would perchance be esteemed hypocritical . The names of localities , at least old localities , for the most part indicate the nature . Thus , wherever the name of a place ends
ia wick , or wich , there will always be found a stream , or spring , close at hand . Narthwich has salt springs . Namptwich , Droitwich , Middlewich , Greenwich , Hampton-wick , Wike-ham , and various others , will be found near streams or springs . Whenever the names of localities end in ham , it means village , or town , i . e . a collection of dwellings , probably equivalent to the word home .
The etymology of Birmingham has puzzled many people . I think it may be thus explained . A few miles from it there is a town called West Bromwich , i . e . West Broom JVick , a spring , or stream , westward , where broom grew . Birmingham , therefore , is in reality , Broom Wick Ham ; so that the vulgar pronunciation , Brummagem , is , in truth , the most correct . Many names of individuals are of territorial derivation . Thus Bentham is
Bent-Ham , i . e . a village near the bent or constructed of bent , a word signifying rushes , which were possibly so named , from the fact that the stems of that plant usually bend downwards . One of the characters in Old Mortality , is a field-preacher , named Bide-the-bent , i . e . bide in the bent 9 or dwell in the rushes , like
Bessie Bell and Mane Gray , They were two bonnie lasses ; They built a house in yon bourne hrae , And covered it o ' er wi rushes . Rushes usually grow near burns or bournes , i . e . brooks . In the old ballad of Otterbourne , i . e . the Otter ' s brook , there is a stanza to the purpose— They lighted down on Otterbourne Among the bent sae brown ; That is to say , they alighted at the Otter stream , amongst the ripe rushes . The word Beer , in Hebrew , signifies water or stream , as Beer-sheba , the water of Sfieba . It is probably connected with the English words beer and burn or bourne .
The word hurst , which is common in many parts of England , means a spot of ground ornamented with trees , as Lyndkurst , i . e . the plantation of linden or lime-trees . Chester and cester , wherever they may be found , indicate a Koman ca&irum or camp . Ton or Town means a house , or number of houses ,
enclosed by a wall or fence . The fords all speak for themselves , as places or towns situated on rivers or streams . Stead , means place , as Uampstead , i . e . the site of the ham , or village . Keep steady ! means , keep in one place . Combe means corn-market . Well speaks for itself . Ley or lea , or \ eigh , i . e . lye ,
Untitled Article
Proposal for a National Cotteg * of Language . 38 ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 387, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/27/
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