Many of you have been watching The Dig, the movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan on Netflix about the Anglo-Saxon archeological discoveries in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk (the southern part of the bulgy bit on the eastern side of England).
You are probably thinking, "Yet another bizarre British place name!", although it cannot compete with my family's favourite when we were growing up not far from there: Six Mile Bottom.
OK, you can stop giggling now and let us apply ourselves to the place name in question.
"Hoo" has nothing to do with our pronoun "who". In very old Anglo-Saxon, hōh was the word for "heel". "hōh" gradually morphed into "heel" and by 1300 was not being used any more. But it survived in some place names, because hōh also meant "a projecting ridge of land shaped like a heel".
fascinating as usual! thank you Katherine.
ReplyDeleteYes, Nether Wallop (also in England)!
ReplyDeleteWestward Ho! is an actual place in Devon and is named for the Charles Kingsley novel. Supposedly, it's the only spot in the UK with an intentional exclamation mark.
ReplyDeleteMy surname, which I took on one I got married, ends in "-enden". One day when I was in a mad rash organizing birth certificates and passports so we could travel somewhere south (remember when we wanted to do that?) I had a telephone conversation with a marvelous public servant who told me that it is a Kentish name.
ReplyDeleteMust admit that Canadian place names can be equally odd. North Dildo comes to mind.
Also Middle Musquodoboit in Nova Scotia.
ReplyDelete