Place-name evidence for an Anglo-Saxon animal name: OE *pohha/*pocca "fallow deer"

Hough, C. (2001) Place-name evidence for an Anglo-Saxon animal name: OE *pohha/*pocca "fallow deer". Anglo-Saxon England, 30, pp. 1-14. (doi: 10.1017/S0263675101000011)

Abstract

It is well known that the extant corpus of Old English literature preserves only a proportion of the vocabulary that once existed. In some instances, terms for concepts that must have been familiar to the Anglo-Saxons have been lost without trace; in others, they may be reconstructed from non-literary forms of evidence such as the place-names coined by early settlers in the areas now known as England and southern Scotland. The main dictionary of place-name terminology, Smith's <i>English Place-Name Elements</i> of 1956, includes many entries for words which are otherwise either unattested, or attested only with other meanings. Animal names in particular constitute an area of vocabulary which is under-represented in literary sources but common in place-names, and for which toponymic evidence often proves crucial. Old English animal names unattested in the extant literature but included in <i>English Place-Name Elements</i> are *bagga ‘badger’, *bula ‘bull’, *ean ‘lamb’, *gæten ‘kid’, *galt ‘pig, boar’, *græg ‘badger’, *hyrse ‘mare’, *padde ‘toad’, *padduc ‘frog’, *pigga ‘young pig’, *stedda ‘horse’, *tacca and *tagga ‘teg, young sheep’, *tige ‘goat’, *todd ‘fox’ and *wiðer ‘ram, wether’. Those identied more recently include *brun ‘pig’ and *wearg ‘wolf ’. As the English Place-Name Survey progresses, providing detailed coverage of the country's toponyms in a series of annual volumes inaugurated in the 1920s, further examples may be expected to come to light. The aim of this article is to offer a new addition to the corpus.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hough, Professor Carole
• Authors: Hough, C.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PE English
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Journal Name: Anglo-Saxon England
• ISSN: 0263-6751
• ISSN (Online): 1474-0532
• Published Online: 10 October 2002