User:Senra/Ely toponymy

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The place-name Ely

The name of Ely has always been recognized as difficult by place-name scholars, and the origin and meaning of the name are still disputed. The earliest record of the name is in the Latin text of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, where Bede wrote Elge. This apparently not a Latin name, and subsequent Latin texts nearly all used forms Elia, Eli, or Heli with inorganic H-. In Old English charters, and in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, the spelling is usually Elig.

Skeat derived the name Ely from what he called "O[ld] Northumbrian" ēlġē, meaning "district of eels". This uses a hypothetical word *ġē, which is not recorded in isolation but thought by some to be related to the modern German word Gau, meaning "district". The theory is that the name then developed a vowel to become ēliġē, and was afterwards re-interpreted to mean "eel island". This essentially is the explanation accepted by Reaney, Ekwall, Mills and Watts.

But difficulties remain. Bailey, in his discussion of ġē names, has pointed out that Ely would be anomalous if really from ēlġē "eel district", being remote from the areas where possible examples of ġē names occur, and moreover, there is no parallel for the use of a fish-name in compounds with ġē. More seriously, the usual English spelling remains Elig, even in the dative case-form used after many prepositions, where Elige would be expected if the second element were īġ "island". This is in conflict with all the other island names which surround Ely. Thus, the etymology is still considered uncertain by some toponymists.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Bailey, Keith (1999), "Some observations on ġē, gau, and go", Journal of the English Place-Name Society, 31
• Crabb, George (1833), Universal historical dictionary: or explanation of the names of persons and places in the departments of biblical, political and eccles. history, mythology, heraldry, biography, bibliography, geography, and numismatics, vol. 1, Baldwin and Cradock, retrieved 12 January 2012 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
• Ekwall, Eilert (1960), The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4th ed.), Oxford: OUP
• John Earle (1865). Two of the Saxon chronicles parallel: with supplementary extracts from the others. Clarendon Press.
• Giles, J A (1843), "chapter XIX", The Complete Works of Venerable Bede, in the original Latin, collated with the Manuscripts, and various printed editions, and accompanied by a new English translation of the Historical Works, and a Life of the Author, London: Whittaker, retrieved 10 January 2012 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |vol= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
• Mills, A D (2003), A dictionary of British place-names, Oxford: OUP
• Reaney, P H (1943), The place-names of Cambridgeshire and the isle of Ely, Cambridge: English Place-name Society {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |vol= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
• Skeet, W (1901), The place-names of Cambridgeshire, Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society
• Watts, V (2004), The Cambridge dictionary of English place-names, Cambridge: CUP

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.