I’m from Massachusetts. We have a lot of names from English towns such as Worcester and Leicester which are lot of Americans often mispronounce. This video is great.
This was excellent! I love etymology. As a German speaker I couldn’t help but wonder if “Burg” the German and likely Saxon word for “city or town” is related to borough. Also the German word “Stau” is a “congestion” or perhaps gathering like Stow or Stou? Loved this content! I adore how incredible the English language is!
Ton , the common place ending in old English meant enclosure or fenced , hedged settlement. In Dutch I believe this is tuin , meaning Garden and in German Zaun meaning hedge or fence.
Some of my favourite names for places are Giggleswick, Wetwang, Lower and Upper Slaughter, Little Snoring, Blubberhouses, Nether Wallop. I am sure there are dozens more, not to mention the strange road names etc. Really interesting where all these names came from. Enjoyed this video so much.
Yay, I look forward to seeing this when I have more time! I'm sure I often say place names wrong in my head when I read them. And, yes, all kinds of background information would be great. I can't travel, so I love learning about different places.
This is amazingly helpful! I'm an American, but read tons of British novels, and I just love all this history! I learned so much and will definitely refer back to this video. Would love to see videos about local castles and landmarks!
19:41 Here in New Jersey is a town called Hammonton; but not a Baconmonton or Sausagemonton, because they're too hard to pronounce. This is a fascinating video.
Thank you very much for this interesting video! I bookmarked it and will get back to it. Since I'm an English teacher in Germany (and very interested in history) I think this is also interesting to my students. I would also like to see you wander around in some small towns and castles.
I would love you to take us on a tour of places and castles, etc. I have visited twice and never get enough. And, it does enhance my reading to be able to visual the setting! Great idea,
Please do another "background info" video on money topics. Everyone in classic books seems to have an "income", or a gentleman gets "1000 pounds a year" making him an attractive husband, or a lady might get "500 a year" making her independent of men. How did this work? Was it invested in something super safe like bonds? How did they get the money? Who managed it? I'd like to understand more. What did they do for money when they traveled?
brilliant..this ethymological research of names and places is one of my favourite hobbies ..even when travelling you can detect some of the history of a place or region..it is fascinating. The syllable CHESTER ..: It could also derive from CAMP with a CISTERN ...as I think it was the Romans who built cisterns first for their "camps". Also in Germany...there are Placenames like FRANKFURT.."furt" meaning "ford".. or HAMBURG...;) I wonder wether BER-LIN also comes from LY- the people...and "BER"..I don't know but BERLIN has a BEAR-SYMBOL in its "Coat of Arms"..may be..there were a lot of wild bears..in ancient times.. ?? Thank you also for the explanation of TON...for TOWN . My question in this series Bridgerton..they alway speak of THE TON....does that mean .."the rich/cultivated people who live in TOWN"..compared to the people who live outside of town in the country (away from culture)....or does the Term TON have a different origin...THANK YOU for Enlightenment ;)
Love some etymology. I was raised near the town of Buckingham which if i remember my schooling was named due the the first Anglo Saxon leader to settle there being Bucca. So Bucca's people = Bucking and then I think the Ham comes from the fact that the town is on the River Great Ouse so river meadow
I really enjoyed this entire talk, thank you so much!! I would love to see you take a 'little walk' around some of the towns near you! I have one 'fun' one to add to all of your examples: Agatha Christie came up with some of the most interesting places and my favorite was "Tipping Cleghorne" (I hope I got that right) shall we try and come up with the background for that one??? LOL I always thought that some important person named Tipping or Cleghorne lived there but now I wonder, what the heck could be a 'Tipping" ????
I thought this was really excellent, thank you. How did you come to know how to pronounce the Old English? I’m an archivist and happen to be rehearsing my own talk on place names today (watching this as a justified break 😉) but am aware that my pronunciation of OE is somewhat lacking!
what about the region KENT? we have "kent"in turkish which means city...town... and "kam" is also sth for turkish shamans,an old ritual...i thought, ham could have drived from there😂... why not? since theres now ancestry research which tries to find common ancestry stretching from göbeklitepe to stonehenge😊
So, if I get that right, Giggleswick in North Yorkshire had trading history? But can you tell me, where the Giggles comes from? Another person? Because I assume, it has not todays meaning of giggling?😊 And Ramsgate would be Garlic Street? Because, ewhen I was in York, ages ago, I"ve read, that gatta came from the vikings, meaning street. But I may remember that wrongly.