Geographical etymology: a dictionary of place-names giving their derivations

Geographical etymology: a dictionary of place-names giving their derivations

Among the branches of human speculation that, in recent times, have walked out of the misty realm of conjecture into the firm land of science, and from the silent chamber of the student into the breezy fields of public life, there are few more interesting than Etymology. For as words are the common counters, or coins rather, with which we mark our points in all the business and all the sport of life, any man whose curiosity has not been blunted by familiarity, will naturally find a pleasure in understanding what the image and superscription on these markers mean; and amongst words there are none that so powerfully stimulate this curiosity as the names of persons and places. About these the intelligent interest of young persons is often prominently manifested; and it is a sad thing when parents or teachers, who should be in a position to gratify this interest, are obliged to waive an eager intelligence aside, and by repeated negations to repel the curiosity which they ought to have encouraged. Geography indeed, a subject full of interest[x] to the young mind, has too often been taught in such a way as neither to delight the imagination with vivid pictures, nor to stimulate inquiry by a frequent reference to the history of names; and this is an evil which, if found to a certain extent in all countries, is particularly rank in Great Britain, where the language of the country is composed of fragments of half a dozen languages, which only the learned understand, and which, to the ear of the many, have no more significance than if they were Hebrew or Coptic. The composite structure of our English speech, in fact, tends to conceal from us the natural organism of language; so that in our case, it requires a special training to make us fully aware of the great truth announced by Horne Tooke, that in language there is nothing arbitrary. Nevertheless, the curiosity about the meaning of words, though seldom cherished, is not easily extinguished; and, in this age of locomotion, there are few scraps of information more grateful to the intelligent tourist than those which relate to the significance of topographical names. When, for instance, the London holiday-maker, in his trip to the West Highlands, setting foot in one of Mr. Hutchinsons steamboats at Oban, on his way to the historic horrors of Glencoe, finds on his larboard side a long, low island, green and treeless, called Lismore, he will be pleased, no doubt, at first by simply hearing so euphonious a word in a language that he had been taught to believe was harsh and barbarous, but will be transported into an altogether different region of intelligent[xi] delight when he is made to understand that this island is wholly composed of a vein of limestone, found only here in the midst of a wide granitic region skirted with trap; that, by virtue of this limestone, the island, though treeless, is more fertile than the surrounding districts; and that for this reason it has received the Celtic designation of Liosmor, or the great garden. Connected with this etymology, not only is the topographical name made to speak reasonably to a reasonable being, but it contains in its bosom a geological fact, and an conomical issue, bound together by a bond of association the most natural and the most permanent. The pleasant nature of the intelligence thus awakened leads us naturally to lament that, except to those who are born in Celtic districts and speak the Celtic language, the significance of so many of our most common topographical names in the most interesting districts is practically lost; and it deserves consideration whether, in our English and classical schools, so much at least of the original speech of the country should not be taught as would enable the intelligent student to know the meaning of the local names, to whose parrot-like repetition he must otherwise be condemned. Some of the Celtic words habitually used in the designation of placessuch as Ben, Glen, Strath, and Lochhave been incorporated into the common English tongue; and the addition to this stock is not very large, which would enable an intelligent traveller to hang the points of his picturesque tour on a philological peg that[xii] would most materially insure both their distinctness and their permanence. Nay, more; the germ of appreciation thus begotten might lead a sympathetic nature easily into some more serious occupation with the old language of our country; and this might lead to a discovery full of pleasant surprise, that in the domain of words, as of physical growth, the brown moors, when examined, often produce flowers of the most choice beauty with which the flush of the most cultivated gardens cannot compete, and that a venerable branch of the old Indo-European family of languages, generally ignored as rude and unlettered, is rich in a popular poetry, as fervid in passion, and as healthy in hue, as anything that Homer or Hesiod ever sang. In the realm of etymology, as everybody now knows, before Bopp and Grimm, and other great scholars, laid the sure foundation of comparative philology on the principles of a philosophy, as all true philosophy is, at once inductive and deductive, the license of conjecture played a mad parta part, it is only too evident, not yet fully played outand specially raised such a glamour of illusion about topographical etymology, that the theme became disgusting to all sober-minded thinkers, or ludicrous, as the humour might be. We must, therefore, approach this subject with a more than common degree of caution, anxious rather to be instructed in what is solid, than to be amazed with what is ingenious. It shall be our endeavour to proceed step by step in this matterpatiently, as with the knowledge that our[xiii] foot is on the brink of boggy ground, starting from obvious principles given by the constitution of the human mind, and confirmed by a large induction of unquestioned facts. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 69018
Author: Blackie, Christina
Release Date: Sep 20, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: John Murray
Publication Date: 1887
Publisher Country: United Kingdom