Origins of Place Names

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, starting with the one I have done more than any other: Origins of Place Names.

Lasting for approximately an hour, although as the subject is almost inexhaustible this could be extended to for as long as you're willing to pay! Following an initial 20 minutes or so when I cover how I got interested in the subject and what it takes to research, and thus produce the book, I open it up to a question and answer session. I work much better 'off the cuff' and it also means the audience get the answers to the questions which intrigue them and not just those which interest me. It also means the speaker has no more knowledge as to what is coming than the audience does, leaving plenty of opportunity for me to reveal my rather quirky sense of humour.

During these Q&A sessions I’m often asked my favourite place name. Predictably this is not something I can answer. Like songs, films, books (unless it’s mine) these change all the time. But I can give an example of what I think is an interesting route to a place name – hopefully you will agree.

Almost on the border between Shropshire and Denbighshire stands the village of Loggerheads. Unusually the name possibly comes from a dispute over estate boundaries, but perhaps a better explanation is that it comes from the name of the public house. This watering hole is named We Three Loggerheads, taken from a painting by Richard Wilson.

The early 17th century painting shows two jesters with a marotte (a fool’s stick) with the caption We Three Loggerheads. The question the observer always asks is ‘Where is the third?’, to which the answer is they who asks the question.

Not in use today, the term ‘loggerhead’ is first used in the 1580s to describe a ‘stupid person, blockhead, dunce, numbskull’. The term is also used a century later to refer to ‘a type of cannon shot’, ‘a post in the stern of a boat’, and also ‘a type of turtle’. Two decades later the term is also used to refer to ‘fighting’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Touch Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'Dutch' last time and this time it's 'touch'.

Touch and go is a game similar to tag, first seen in 1812.

Touch football, a 'safe' form of American Football (to the British) where tackling is replaced by a mere touch and is first recorded in 1933.

Touch me not is an expression first recorded in 1590, it's a put down used to deter would be suitors.

Touch screen is first seen as early as 1974.

Touch up, and I'm using this in its earliest sense of 'improvement requiring little effort' is first seen in 1872; and if used in a painting sense, dates from 1715.

Touch wood (or knock on wood) dates from at least Celtic times 2,500 years ago.

Touchdown, the main scoring method in American Football, comes from 1864 and was borrowed from rugby where it is recorded five years earlier.

Touchstone, a fine-grained black quartz used for testing gold and silver alloys, is first seen in the late 15th century.

Touched, a term meaning 'stirred emotionally', is first seen in the middle of the 14th century.