Element Glossary
There are 1653 elements:
*cant 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'border, edge, rim'. Modern Welsh cant, pl. ceint, has this meaning.
*deua 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
As this word is represented in the name Dee as early as the second century, it belongs to an earlier phase of the Celtic language whose later phases are termed 'Brittonic'. It is connected to the Proto-Celtic *deiwos 'god' and *deiwa 'goddess' - and clearly therefore to other I.E. words for deities, including Latin deus.
-an 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: S
It may function as a diminutive (loch > lochan 'a small loch') or as a locational suffix.
-as 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: S
This suffix may be used to create a nominal form from an adjective. Thus G caol 'narrow' > caolas 'a strait, narrow stretch of water'. G cam 'curved' > camas 'a bay'. We might suggest that the recuring name Cairnsmore contains G càrn + -as > càrnas, though here we have a noun being changed into another noun.
-auc 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: S
A suffix from From Proto-Celtic *-ákos, awk, later Welsh -og. It has a Gaelic cognate, -óc, later -óg.
It was used to form adjectives, but it (or a similar suffix) was also used as a nominal diminutive suffix.
-n(e)ach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: S
A suffix suggested by Joyce, cited by the Place-Names of Northern Ireland database, in respect of Brackney, Co. Antrim.
abbey 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
also abbay etc. 'An abbey; a monastery or convent whose head is an abbot or abbess'.
abbey 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'An abbey; a monastery or convent whose head is an abbot or abbess'.
abhall 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. abhaill. 'Apple tree, orchard', not to be confused with G ubhall 'apple' - a distinction which goes back to OG aball 'apple tree', and uball 'apple'. This can apply both to the wild fruit, crab-apple (Malus sylvestris), and to the sweeter domesticated apple.
achadh 10 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing, achaidh, 'field, plain, meadow'.
adhar 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. aidhre. 'Snow, frost'. Dwelly says that this word (from OG adar) is now obsolete.
aiky 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj, Gender N
'Covered with oak’; this adj., from Scots aik, ake ‘oak’, is not attested in the lexicon (DOST or SND).
ail 7 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
also aill/all, gen. sing. alla (m), ‘rock, cliff, stone’, both obsolete according to Dwelly, but the latter preserved in modern G mac-talla or macalla ‘echo’, literally ‘son of (the) cliff’. The element appears in OG as ail, gen. sing. alo, ‘rock, boulder’ (f.), and is a fairly common element in place-names. Note also OG oil f., ‘a large stone or pillar-stone (fixed) in the ground’, which DIL suggests is the same word as ail. DIL also lists ailech and states that it is a collective term formed from OG ail, and it is presumably the origin of G eileach ‘(stone-built) mill-dam, mound, bank, rock, weir’. According to W. J. Watson, this latter element is found in such Scottish place-names as Elcho PER and Elchies BNF (1926, 478–9), and may be the second element in Cullaloe ABO, possibly indicating the presence of good building stone.[1] Ail may also occur in compound with other nouns, such as ail-mhagh ‘rock-plain’, possibly underlying Tulliallan TUL (Vol. 1).
In Scotland in general it is probable that some place-names containing this element are actually derived from a lost British and Pictish *al ‘rock’. Though it is not attested in old or modern Welsh as a lexical item, it is found in place-names such as Al Clut (with various spellings) (‘Clyde Rock’, now Dumbarton Rock).
Note also Welsh elech (f.), which GPC analyses as containing the intensifying prefix e- + llech ‘flat stone, flag stone’ (cognate with G leac with similar meaning). The relationship between this word and Scottish names such as Elchies, Elcho and even Cullaloe requires further investigation.
àilean 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. àilein. 'A plain, meadow, green' (Dwelly).
aill 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
Dwelly describes it as obsolete: 'rugged bank, rough steep, steep river-bank, place, stead'.
airbhe/eirbhe 6 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
Dwelly lists the noun as eirbhe, 'fence, wall' (obsolete), but OG airbe, a verbal noun from ar-fen 'erects a fence'. 'hedge, fence, paling, pen for animals' (DIL).
àird 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. àirde 'height, eminence, promontory, point, cape'.
àirde 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. àirde, 'height, eminence, high place', also 'promontory'.
àirigh 8 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. àirighe. 'Shieling, summer pasture'. This may be on higher ground, which is too exposed for winter grazing. But it may also be on low marshy ground, which cannot be grazed in winter because it is too wet, but is dry enough to support grazing in summer months.
àlainn 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Beautiful, lovely, bright, clear, glorious, white' et al.
Allangibbon 1 place-name
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
Allangibbon is an island, or near-island depending on the height of the water in the river, on the east side (Dalry parish) of the river.
allt 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. uillt. 'Stream, burn, mountain river with steep banks'.
almery* 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Almonry', ultimately from elemosinarium, the place where the elemosinarius or alms-administrator worked, or his/her office.
àmraidh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'Cupboard, almonry', presumably a loan word from Sc almery, or perhaps directly from Latin eleemosinarium, elmoneria, almoneria, almonria, almonarium and similar, 'alms-house, almonry, office of almoner', the church office and official responsible for the distribution of alms or charitable giving.
an 84 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: D
The definite article, 'the'. It varies according to gender, case and number, as well as according to the initial letter of following nouns. Its presence may also affect the sound of the initial of a following noun.
annaid 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. annaide. 'Mother church, church of authority by virtue of its antiquity (referred to as such even if it no longer exists)'.
Aquavitae 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Clearly the term derives from Latin, 'the water of life', but it had become part of both Sc and SSE by the time that names were being coined in it, meaning 'strong spirit liquor'. 'Water of life' is a term used in many languages to refer to such drink: French eau de vie, Gaelic uisge beatha, Swedish akvavit (obviously not a translation but a direct borrowing of the Latin words). It may refer to whisky or brandy.
àth 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. àth, ‘ford’, OG áth m., gen. sing. àtho or àtha (u-stem).
bac 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. baic (also baca), 'Stop, hindrance; hollow, pit, bend in the ground'. But Middle Gaelic bacc 'angle, bend, corner, especially of a field used as a shelter for horses or cattlel' (DIL) may be a more likely range of meanings for place-names.
backside 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Place behind a feature, at the back of an area'.
baisteadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. baistidh. 'Baptism, baptising'.
bàrr 35 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
In place-names, 'hill, hill-top, rounded head-like feature, top'.
barr 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'large hill, ridge' (SND). A loan from G bàrr 'hill, hill-top'. It is noted by SND as being particularly common in Galloway. It seems to appear also in Barholm NX520530, Anworth parish.
bawn 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Not attested in Scots dictionaries (CSD, DLS, SND), but in Ireland bawn is a cattle-enclosure, where the animals are milked. It is a loan from G bàbhun 'enclosure, rampart, fold for cattle'. c.f. OG badún, 'enclosing wall, enclosure for cattle'.
beabhar 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. beabhair. 'Beaver' (the animal or the hat). A loan word from English beaver.
bealach 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sg. bealaich. 'Defile, passage, pass through mountains or hills; a gap or breach in a wall or fence; gateway'.
bean 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. mnà; gen. pl. ban. 'A woman'.
beann 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. beinn. Among other meanings which might apply to a place, 'step, corner, horn, top, peak'.
beannan 7 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. beannain. 'Little hill, little mountain'. It is more or less impossible to distinguish in place-names from its variant forms binnein, binnean, beinnean (listed as distinct head-words in Dwelly, but interconnected, and all working as diminutives of beinn).
beinn 1 historical form10 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. beinne, pl. beanntan. 'Mountain, hill, high place', clearly very common in place-names.
But note that OG benn, 'mountain, peak', also means 'horn', and does appear with this meaning in place-names (Watson 1926, 31, 195-6). c.f. Proto-Celtic benna- 'horn'.
beinnean 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. beinnein, 'little hill'. A diminutive of the feminine noun beinn 'mountain, hill'. See also G binnein 'pinacle, high conical hill', and binnean.
beith 13 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. beithe; gen. pl. beith. 'birch tree'. Though now feminine, OG beithe was masculine; beith feminine (DIL). Dwelly does not record any gender-variation of beith, but treats it as a universally feminine noun.
beitheach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'abounding in or relating to birch trees (G beith 'birch'); OG beithech, 'birch land, grove of birch'.
Bennan 4 place-names
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
from G beannan 'little mountain, little hill', var. beinnean and binnein.
bent 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'bent', coarse grass of the genus agrostis, and other similar plants. In its plural form in place-names it is used to refer to a piece of land covered with such grasses.
beorg 2 place-names
Language: S (OE), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
also berg, beorh, biorh, biorg, 'a hill, mountain, heap'. In VEPN under the head-word berg.
bere 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'barley', also used in Scots place-names.
beul 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. beòil. 'Mouth, opening, aperture, approach'.
beul-àth 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
Though listed in Dwelly as beul-àtha 'mouth of the ford', it appears several times in Scottish place-names as a compound beul-àth, where beul seems to qualify àth, rather than àtha being the gen. sing. form implicit in Dwelly's beul-àtha. Literally this would mean 'mouth-ford', perhaps a particular kind of ford, though it is not clear what exactly it would specify.
biastadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. biastaidh. 'Abuse, reviling'.
binnean 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. binnein. 'Little (peaked) hill, pinnacle', a diminutive of G beinn. This is the form adopted by modern dictionaries. Dwelly also has beinnean and binnein, treated under separate headings but all referreed to binnein. c.f. OG bennán, 'horned or peaked objects'; beinnin 'little peak'.
birnie 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Abounding in birn'. An adjective from Sc birn 'scorched stem of heather after smaller twigs are burned', and by extension 'pasture on dry heathy land' (DSL).
blà 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
OG bla (m.) 'boundary marker, green, level field', appearing in G as blà, now obsolete according to Dwelly, with a range of meanings including 'town, village, green field' (presumably the territory area marked out by such boundary markers).
black 1 historical form32 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Black'; also Scots.
blàr 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. blàir. 'A field, plain, level place' among other meanings.
blàth 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. blàith. 'A flower, bloom, blossom, foliage' inter alia.
bleoghann 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. bleoghainn, (with var. bleaghainn), 'milking, the act of milking'.
blow 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: V
In place-names usually referring to the action of the wind.
boat 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Boat', in place-names often relating to a place where a boat plies (a ferry for example), or where a boat is kept, or a boatman has his place
boc 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. buic. 'Roe-buck, male goat'.
bodach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. bodaich. 'Old fellow, rustic, countryman', sometimes with a negative implication of churlishness.
Boddon 2 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
Black gives Bodden, Boddane - possibly connected to Bowden in ROX (1946, 85), with examples in Kirkcudbrightshire.
bogle 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A ghost, spectre, phantom, causing fright' (SND).
bondingtoun 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'land held directly by husbandmen, tenants of small farms holding directly of the feudal superior'.
bòrd 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. bùird, 'table', which in a place-name may refer to some flat table-like feature in the landsdcape, but may also be used metaphorically in the sense of Sc bordland, 'mensal land, table-land', i.e. land used to supply the table of the feudal superior directly'.
bordland 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'table land, mensal land', that is land which directly supplies the table of the feudal superior.
bòrlum 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. bòrluim, 'lands associated with a castle, mensal land', from Sc bordland 'mensal land, land providing produce for the lord's table'. It is related to G borlanachd, compulsory labour for a landlord (also from Sc bordland).
The origin of the word in Sc bordland, and the existence of G borlanachd (with its medial /n/) suggests that there may have been an earlier Gaelic form *borlann.
bourtree 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
also Sc bourtree, bourtré, bountree; 'elder'.
bout 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
also, bowt, bolt CSD): 'the extent of ground covered as the mower, driller or ploughman moves from one end of a field to the other, sometimes used also to include the return action' (SND). Hence 'two furrows'.
box 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
The box tree (Buxus sempervirens), a tree nativei to western Europe and distributed in Britain as far north as the Forth-Clyde line.
brack 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Ground broken up for cultivation; a division of land under the old system of rotation of crops'.
Also can mean 'a hollow in a hillside'.
brackeny 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Covered in bracken, abounding in bracken'.
bradan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. bradain. 'A salmon'. OG bratán.
brae 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘(Steep) slope’, in singular usually applied to a slope on a road, but in plural simply meaning ‘slopes, sloping upland’.
bràghad 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. bràghaid, nom. pl. bràghadan: 'neck, throat, breast', and therefore 'upper part' (related to G bràigh 'upper part, upland country', whose gen .sing. forms include bràghad, dat. sing. bràghaid).
bràigh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. bràighe or bràghad, pl. bràigheachan. 'Upper part, upland country'.
brandit 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Having a reddish-brown colour', as if brandit or 'burned'. In some cases the word may refer not to the colour of the ground or vegetation, but to the fact that the ground actually has been burned. Burning is used in various ways for ground clearance or maintenance.
breac 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. brice, 'a trout', also sometimes 'salmon, sea trout'.
breatan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
An obsolete form if the word for a Briton, a Welsh-speaker, vel sim. OG Bretain (nom. pl.), Bretan (gen. pl.). In modern Gaelic Breatannach.
brig 1 historical form6 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
In some cases it has been Englished to bridge, but it can be assumed that any name coined before about 1700 will have brig rather than bridge, while those coined after that time will usually have bridge. In modern Scots brig is the usual form for all bridge-names.
broc 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'grey, dark grey'. Dwelly says that the word is obsolete.
broch 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
also brough, brugh etc. 'A fort', usually used in modern Scots of the Iron Age tower fortifications associated with the northern part of Scotland, but not exclusively. Earlier also used for 'burgh', the town.
broclach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. broclaich. 'Warren, badger's den, fox's den'. G broc 'badger'.
broom 1 historical form2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Broom (plant)'; also Scots.
brough 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
The Sc version of the modern English word burgh, also in SSE.
brow 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Brow of a hill, overhanging bank of river' (also Sc broo).
brownie 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A household sprite'. If treated well a brownie would serve the household in its chores etc. In some versions, however, he may be an evil and dangerous presence. Also Sc broonie.
buaile 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. buaile; pl. buailtean. 'Fold for sheep or cattle'.
bucht 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Also bught. bought. 'A sheepfold, a small inner fold for milking'.
bught 4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Small enclosure for sheep or other farm animals'. See also Sc bucht.
burh 1 place-name
Language: S (OE), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'A stronghold'. In place-names, 'applied to a range of defended sites, including Iron-Age hill-forts, Roman stations, and Anglo-Saxon and medieval fortifications, towns and manor-houses' (VEPN).
burn 1 historical form14 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A burn, a stream'; also SSE.
burn 187 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
‘A burn, a stream’, the standard word in Scotland, both in Scots and SSE for southern English ‘stream, brook’, northern English ‘beck’. It usually occurs as a generic, but it is sometimes found as the specific element of a settlement name, describing the settlement in relation to the burn (e.g. Burnbank FOU).
buss 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
also bus, bush, busche, etc. , 'bush', or 'a thicket, a clump or stand of trees, a wood'.
butt 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A small piece of land disjoined from adjacent lands; a small freehold'.
butt 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Small piece of ground, freehold, a section disjoined from a farm'. Also Sc butt and G but.
butter 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Butter', typically used in place-names of rich pasture producing butter, or of places where butters was made or kept cool; also Scots.
Also used in descriptions of the shape of a feature, reminiscent of a lump of butter.
cadger 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'An itinerant dealer or trader, a hawker; a carrier of goods or carter' (CSD).
cadger 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Originally 'a carrier of goods', and thus also a trader in these goods, usually travelling with a pack-horse or horse and cart, dealing in butter, eggs, poultry etc. from more remote country farms. Later the word had more pejorative meaning, implying begging and even dishonesty.
cairn 1 historical form14 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A cairn, burial mound, pile of stones'; also Scots.
cairn 1 historical form3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A cairn, burial mound, pile of stones'; also SSE. It may also refer to a large mountain. Carlin's Cairn CPH rises to 807 metres.
cairny 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'associated with a cairn or cairns', or perhaps 'like a cairn'.
caiseal 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. caiseil. 'A bulwark or wall, castle, garrison, hurdle, mound, a cruive in a river for fishing, stone building' (Dwelly).
caisteal 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. caisteil. 'Castle, fort, tower, turreted mansion'. Related to G caiseal - perhaps we should the two forms as essentially the same word.
callan 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
var. callant, calland. 'A boy, young man, stripling'.
calltainn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. calltainne, gen. pl. calltainn. 'Hazel tree'.
can 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: Aj
'bright, white, shining'. The word in Y Gododdin with reference to white horses. Apparently deriving from proto-Celtic *kan(s)to.
Cannan 3 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
Should be treated as the same name as Cannon (see Black 1954, 131).
caol 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. caoil. 'A narrow strait, narrow part of a river, the smaller part of anything'.
caora 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. caorach (or caoire), gen. pl. caorach. 'Sheep'.
caorann 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. caorainn, gen. pl. caorainnean. 'Rowan tree'. OG caérthann 'rowan'.
capall 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. capaill, ‘mare, horse’; OG ‘horse; frequently draught-horse’ as opposed to ech ‘saddle-horse, chariot-horse’ (DIL).
car 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cuir. 'Twist, bend, turn; a winding or meandering (of a stream); a way or course'.
carline 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
also carling, kerlying etc. 'An old woman, a witch' (CSD). Note also Sc carlin, a diminutive of Sc carle 'a man, peasant, labourer'.
càrn 13 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. càirn or cùirn. 'A cairn, a heap of stones, a pile of stones loosely thrown together, rock' (Dwelly). This word can be applied to very large mountains.
càrnach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. càrnaich. 'stony ground, quarry'. It can also mean 'heathen priest', but that is less likely in place-names.
càrnas 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
A derivative of G càrn, presumably by addition of a suffix (-as): 'rocky hill'. It appears in several hill-names in Galloway (three Cairnsmores, Carnsmole, Cairnsgarroch), though not in any dictionary. Discussed briefly by Watson (1926, 182). He does not represent it with an accent.
càrr 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. càirr. 'A bog, fen, morass, moss'.
cars 1 historical form10 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'Level fertile country, usually riverside land'. It seems likely that G cars is in origin a loan-word from Northern Brittonic cors (cf.modern Welsh cors 'fen, bog, swamp'). Dwelly regarded the Gaelic word as a loan from Sc carse of broadly the same meaning ('Gaelic spelling of carse), but Clancy ('The Origin of carse', forthcoming) has argued against that traditionally accepted view.
In place-names in cars in our area, there is sometimes variation in the early forms between Cars- and Cors-.
carse 4 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'riverside ground, usually level and low-lying'. Also in SSE.
carse 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'riverside ground, usually level and low-lying'. Also in Sc.
cas 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. coise 'foot, leg, shaft, stem'.
castle 8 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A castle; a big house'; also a feature that resembles a castle, or is interpreted as the remains of a castle.
cat 8 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cait. 'Cat', in place-names possibly referring to a wild cat. (c.f. Welsh cath 'cat, wildcat'.
cat 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
In place-names 'cat' frequently denotes a wild cat.
ceann 6 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cinn. 'Head, end, chief, extremity et al.' Usually forms place-names using oblique case, cinn (anglicised as Kin-) a dative form of OG cenn/cend, meaning 'at the end'.
Ceannaideach 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
The name commonly anglicised as 'Kennedy'.
cearc 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. circe. 'A hen'. In compound forms cearc can refer to the female of other birds: cearc-fhraoich 'female red grouse', cearc-thomain 'partridge', cearc uisge 'water hen', and so on. It may be that cearc appearing in place-names may sometimes refer to these and similar wild birds with cearc-names.
ceasach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. ceasaich. Now obsolete (Dwelly), 'temporary bridge or footpath over a bog'. Dwelly locates the word in Islay, but it must have had wider currency once. It is ciseach in Irish Gaelic, 'wattled causeway, improvised path, footbridge over soft ground'.
ceathramh 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. ceathraimh. 'A quarter, a fourth part'
chaipel, chapel 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A place of worship, a chapel'.
chapel 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A chapel, a place of worship'; also Scots.
chapman 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A peddler', earlier 'a merchant, one who sells wares' (OE ceap 'trade, a bargain', whence SSE cheap). Also spelt chepman. SSE chapman.
cheek 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'The side of anything, esp. of a door, gate, fireplace' (SND); but in place-names also possibly a metaphorical use of 'side of the face'.
Chesney 2 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
The name Chesney was well known in Galloway (OS1/20/83/9), and appears to be, at least in this part of the world, an abbreviation of MacChesney. Agnes McChesnie was charged with being a disorderly person in Kirkcudbright in 1684, and other are recorded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Galloway in Kirkmabreck and Borgue (Black 1954, 467). A James Chesney is recorded as living at Craigenputtock, Dunscore in the 1850s (OS1/20/41/71). The origin of the name is French, from one of the villages called Le Quesnoy in the Departments of Seine-Inferieure, La Manche or Calvados. The name means ‘oak grove’ (Latin casnetum), and appears as Chesney, Cheyne, Cheney, and in Gaelic contexts as MacChesney.
cìoch 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. cìche, 'a woman's breast', in place-names referring to a breast-shaped hill.
clach 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. cloiche. 'A stone or rock'. Also appears as cloch.
clachan 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. clachain. 'A village (usually around a parish kirk, and - according to Dwelly - an inn and smithy), church, burying ground, stepping stones'.
clachan 1 historical form1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A village', usually used of the village where the parish kirk stands. It is a loan from G clachan, with the same meaning (among others).
cladh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cladha (also claidh). Burying place, mound, dyke, trench' (Dwelly).
clais 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. claise. 'A hollow, ditch, furrow'.
claon 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'Slope, hillside, steep path' (also an adjective meaning 'sloping, inclining, squint'. OG cláen 'slope, slant, stoop', or adjective meaning 'uneven, crooked, sloping, aslant etc.' (DIL).
clàr 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Board, table, flat place’. See Watson 1926, 393 (The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland) and Place-Names of Fife vol. 5, Elements Glossary s.v.).
clatter 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: V
'To chatter, make a noise, be noisy', often in place-names as clattering.
cleugh 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A narrow gorge or chasm with high rocky sides' (SND).
clint 4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A cliff, a crag, a precipice', also 'a rock, a stone', 'a cleft or crevice (in rocks)' (CSD2).
clòidh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
Obsolete, according to Dwelly. 'Paddock, small enclosure of grassland'.
close 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'a close, a passageway', also 'an enclosure, courtyard, farmyard, entry' (and Sc close) (CSD).
cluain 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. cluaine. 'Pasture-land, green field, meadow,
cnoc 59 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cnuic, pl. cnuic. 'hill' (usually not a large hill).
cnocan 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cnocain. 'Mound, little hill, heap', a diminutive of G cnoc.
cobhan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cobhain. A range of meanings including 'hollow, small creek'. From OG cobfán (also cabán) 'slope, hollow', which gives modern Irish cabhán 'hollow, cavity, little hill'. It may be the same word as G cabhan (now obsolete) 'hollow plain, little cave' (Dwelly).
coille 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. coille, pl. coilltean. 'A wood, woodland, forest' grove'.
còinneach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'Moss fog; order of ferns called bryacae' (Dwelly). OG cáenna, 'moss, sphagnum' (DIL).
cointean 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cointein. Dwelly records this word as obsolete. 'Controversy, quarrel', and also 'a contentious man, a wrangler'.
coire 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. coire, pl. coireachan, 'cauldron, kettle', and therefore 'circular hollow surrounded by hills, mountain dell, whirlpool' (Dwelly).
cold 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Cold', often with names of water-courses; also 'inhospitable, cheerless' or 'bleak, exposed'.
coll 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. coill or cuill. 'Hazel, hazel tree'. OG coll. This word is obsolete in modern Gaelic, and has been replaced by calltainn, g.s. calltainne (m).
con 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'hound, dog'. The standard modern Gaelic word for dog is cú, of which con is the gen. pl. form, but in OG con is 'hound, dog, wolf' in nominative.
copag 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. copaig. 'Docken, dock-leaf',
cor 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'A rounded hill'. Not in modern Gaelic dictionaries, but see Watson 1926, 366.
còrn 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cùirn. 'Horn'. It may appear in place-names with reference to 'horn-shaped' landscape features such as promontories. The Cornavii appear in Ptolemy's map of what is now Scotland in the area of Caithness, their name meaning 'folk of the horn', the promontory of Caithness. The same word appears in Abercorn and Cornie (Watson 1926, 16, 461).
The same word is recorded (in Perthshire at least) as meaning 'convex surface'.
còrr 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Snout, bill, horn, end, corner, limit'. c.f. OG corr 'projecting part, end, corner, peak' (DIL). G corran is presumably a diminutive form of this word, meaning 'reaping hook, sickle, point of land running into the sea, point of a weapon, etc'.
corrach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Snout, bill, horn, end, corner, limit'.
corrach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Steep, angry, precipitous', c.f. OG corrach 'rough, uneven'.
corrach* 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'abounding in herons'. Not attested in dictionaries, but suggested here using standard way of forming adjectives from nouns. G corra 'heron' (OG corr) > *corrach.
corran 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. corrain. 'Reaping hook, sickle'. This may appear in place-names in reference to a curved point or sickle-shaped ridge or other landsdcape feature.
corrie 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A hollow surrounded by hills', a loan from G coire, with the same meaning.
cors 3 place-names
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'swamp, bog, marsh'. Also 'reeds, reed-grass, stalks'.
court 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A court'. In place-names this may refer to the holding of outdoor legal assemblies, real or imagined.
crabtree 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Wild apple tree, crab apple tree', Malus sylvestris.
craig 1 historical form10 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A rock, crag'; also SSE.
craigie 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Rocky, craggy'. Also Sc. craigie, or craigy.
craobh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. craoibhe. 'Tree, bush'.
crathaidh 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Quaking bog'. Watson gives this word as the origin of Cray in Glen Shee (1926, 47-9) and refers it to the Irish crathaidhe, creathaidhe, 'quaking bog'.
craw 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Crow', or sometimes applied in Scotland to the rook (CSD).
creadha 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj, Gender F
gen. sing. crè . 'Clay, dust'. OG cré 'clay, earth'.
creag 58 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. creige; 'rock, cliff, precipitous rocky hill'.
creagach 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'rocky, craggy', an adjective formed from G creag 'rock, crag, cliff' + -ach suffix. It may be used nominally, 'rocky place'.
creathach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. creathaiche, 'underwood, brushwood, faggots'.
creathrach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
G creathar 'woodcock' provides the origin of this adjective creathrach 'abounding in woodcock' or 'woodcock place', though the word is not in Dwelly.
criathrach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. criathraich. 'swamp, marshy ground, wilderness'. OG críathrach 'boggy wasteland, marsh'.
crìoch 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. crìche. 'End, limit, boundary, border'.
critheach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'shaking, quaking', sometimes applied to 'quaking bog' See also G *crathaidh.
critheach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. crithaich, 'aspen tree' (Populus tremula) or 'poplar'. There is a variant form of the noun, critheann, gen. sing. creathainn.
crochadair 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. crochadair. 'A hangman'.
croft 15 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A croft; a (small) piece of arable'. Also Scots. It may also appear as craft.
croft 1 historical form3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A small land-holding (leased by a tenant)', frequently in place-names 16- ; 'a piece of enclosed land (adjoining a house), a small field (used for tillage or pasture)', frequently in place-names 13-19 (CSD2).
croich 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. croiche; pl. croichhean 'gallows, gibbet', also 'cross'.
crois 7 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
crois, gen. sing. croise, 'cross', and various other cross-like objects; also 'crossing, crossing-place'. There is a masculine form of the noun as well, cros. For discussion of this element in the sense of 'crossing' (rather than 'cross', the religious symbol or things similar to it) see Márkus 2012, 492-5, 543-4. See also for use of the word in the sense of 'crossing' Watson 1926, 144 (in discussion of Corstorphine).
It is sometimes rendered Corse- in Scottish place-names.
cromadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cromaidh. 'Bend, curve, turn, concavity'.
crook 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A curved or crooked piece of land, a nook or corner', also 'a curve, a bend; a river-bend' (CSD2).
cross 4 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A cross'; also appearing as cors or corse etc. It is frequently used in place-names of 'a crossing,a cross-roads; a market cross, a market-place'; also 'a cross as a boundary marker; a cairn, a pile of stones on a hill-top' (CSD2). It may also refer to something perceived as 'lying across' or perhaps with a route crossing some landscape feature.
crossgates 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Crossroads', where two roads cross each other.
cruachach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Pertaining to or abounding in mountains, heaps, stacks, hills; hilly, mountainous'. It may be used nominally
crùn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. crùin. 'Crown, garland, shield-boss etc.', and therefore 'thing of a round shape'.
cùil 7 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. cùile, plur. cùiltean. 'Corner, nook, niche'.
cuilean 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Nu, Gender M
gen. sing. cuilein. 'A whelp, puppy, cub or leveret', and other meanings related to smallness of a thing.
cuilionn 1 historical form2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cuilinn, 'holly, holly tree'(Ilex aquifolium). It may also (unusually) refer to 'elm' (at least in Pertshire Gaelic).
cuilionnach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. cuilionnaich. 'Place where holly (G cuilionn) grows' It is also a word used for the thrush or mavis, presumably because of that bird's liking for berries of the cuilionn.
cuilt 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'Nook, corner, recess'. Though not recorded in dictionaries, it is clearly related to G cùil, nom. pl. cùiltean or cùilean. See Taylor with Márkus v, 346; Watson 1926, 140-1, 418, 492.
cùl 10 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. cùil, 'back, back place'.
Cully 2 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
MacCully is a local Galloway variant of the name MacCulloch, a well-established name in the area (Black 1954, 483-4), and Cully may be a reduced form of that name.
currach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. curraich. 'Bog, fen, wet plain' (Dwelly s.v.; also Watson 1926, 144 for examples).
cushie 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'wood pigeon or ring dove', also Scots cushie.
dà 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Nu
'two'. Lenites following (lenitable) consants.
dabhach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. dabhaich. 'A vat, large tub', also used in the Highlands to refer to a substantial farm, a unit of land - 'to carry 60 cows or head of cattle', anglicised as davoch. It is also used in Galloway to refer to a fish trap or weir, presumably because of their perceived vat-like feature, where it was loaned into Scots as doach.
daffin 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'fun, foolish behaviour', also 'licentious behaviour and smutty language' (CSD).
dail 13 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. dalach gen. pl. dailthean. 'Water-meadow, haugh', a loan into Gaelic from British or Pictish *dol, with similar meaning. Cf. modern Welsh dôl 'meadow, field, pasture, bend, ox-bow'.
daingean 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
Now daingneach, from OG daingen 'stronghold, fortress, fastness'. Also an adjective: 'firm, strong, fast'.
dair 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. daire. 'Oak'. OG dair, earlier neuter, later feminine, gen. sing. dara, daro (later darach).
dale 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'a share, part, portion' (of land). Also dele, deal etc.
dam 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'(A body of water confined by) a retaining wall; a mill-dam' la13- (CSD2).
dam 11 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
A pool of water, either artificially created by the erection of a barrier, or naturally occurring, often holding water used to drive a mill.
darach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. daraich. 'An oak tree (Quercus robur), or oak wood'.
dass 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A ledge on a hillsid, a cliff' (also Sc dass).
de 2 historical forms
Language: S (La), Part of Speech: Pr
In place-names usually 'of'. e.g. Foresta de Buchan, the forest of Buchan. In descriptions of boundaries and such like, often 'from' - de rivulo usque ad montem 'from the stream to the hill'.
dealg 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. deilg, or deilge. 'A pin, skewer or wire', or more likely in place-names, 'a thorn or prickle'.
deargan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. deargain. 'Kestrel, hawk, falcon' and various other red-marked birds. Also 'red stain, red dye' etc. c.f. G dearg 'red'.
deer 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A deer', or several - the plural and the singular are the same.
devil 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A devil', or perhaps usually 'the devil'.
diamond 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Probably in place-names usually a reference to the shape of the feature, 'diamond-shaped'.
doach 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A fish-trap using a cruive or weir'. It derives from Gaelic dabhach 'a vat or tub'.
The use of the Scots term doach for fish-traps or weirs may have a particularly Galloway origin, as all the examples cited by SND are from Galloway sources. One refers to ‘a rocky stretch of the river Dee at Tongland’ and cites an author in 1926 who ‘came down the west side of the Water of Ken, by the doachs or roaring linn, where the salmon sulk and leap’. Another source is OSA which reports in 1793 of the River Dee: ‘It abounds with salmon in the fishing season .... but few of them get above the works, termed Doachs, erected across the river, nearly opposite to the cornmills and church of Tongland, excepting in very high floods’ (OSA ix, 320).
doire 6 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. doire, pl. doirean or doireachan, 'a small wood, a grove, thicket, clump of trees' (properly oaks, Dwelly). But note in place-names apparent occurrences of this word may represent G dair, gen. sing. daire (f.) 'oak tree'.
Dòmhnall 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
The Gaelic name, generally rendered Donald in SSE/Sc.
dòrn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. dùirn. 'Fist', and hence 'fist-sized rocks'.
dorus 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. doruis. 'A door, opening, orifice', in place-names referring to a pass or a through-way.
droighnean 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. droighnein. 'A blackthorn thicket'.
dronnan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. dronnain. 'Back, ridge, hump on the back', a diminutive of dronn 'ridge, back, summit'.
druim 1 historical form45 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'A ridge (of land)', literally 'a back'.
drum 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A ridge’; borrowed from G druim with the same meaning.
drum 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A ridge', also Sc drum. Both loaned from G druim 'a ridge'.
drȳge 2 place-names
Language: S (OE), Part of Speech: Aj
‘Dry’. In place-names, mostly used of arid land or a dried-up stream.
dub 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A pool, especially one of muddy or stagnant water; pond; waterhole in a moss; puddle; a sea pool, especially one only visible at low water’ (in this last meaning, FIF and BWK); 'a puddle' (SND). SND also gives a specifically BWK usage of dub meaning 'a pool in a river'. Also Scots.
dubbie 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Having muddy pools or ponds, etc.', dubs.
dubh 9 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'black, dark'. Unlike most Gaelic adjectives, which usually follow the noun they qualify, dubh very often precedes the noun in place-names such as Dowloch (dubh loch 'black loch'), Duchrae (dubh chrathaidh 'black quaking bog').
dubhach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
As an adjective dubhach means 'dark, gloomy, sad, melancholy'. It is a reflex of G dubh 'black' or 'dark'. In place-names it may be better understood as containing dubh + suffix -ach.
dùn 13 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'A (fortified) hill, a defensive hill, a fortification'; also 'hill, hillock, heap, tower'.
dùnan 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Gender M
gen sing. dùnain. 'A small hill, or small fort', a diminutive of G dùn 'fort, hill'.
dyster 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'a dyer (of cloth etc.)'. Originally an Old English term, it continued in Sc and later in SSE, still meaning 'dyer'. It also became a surname: Dyer, Dyster, Dexter.
eala 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. ealaidh or eala; 'swan'. OG ela 'swan'.
ealach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Abounding in swans, associated with swans'.
eallaidh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Cattle', perhaps < OG ellach 'goods, propertly, stock, cattle'.
eang 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
‘A nook, gusset, primarily something angular or triangular’ (Watson 1926, 180). Dwelly gives a wider range of meanings: 'leg, foot, hoof, track, footstep, point of land, corner, small portion' amongst others. Two separate OG words underlie Dwelly's definitions, namely 1. OG eng 'track, trace' and 2. eng (f.) '(a) a portion of surface, angle, strip, patch, esp. a piece or strip of cloth; (b) a piece of land, district, territory, country' (DIL).
Gen. sing. eanga.
earrann 1 historical form16 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. earrainn, 'share, portion, division of land', from OG airrann. There is a remarkable concentration in the Galloway Glens, and SW Scotland in general, of this otherwise unusual word. In Menteith, names in earann are often associated with ecclesiastical tenure of lands. See McNiven 2014.
eas 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. easa. 'Waterfall, cataract, cascade'.
easbaig 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. easbaig. 'A bishop', a loan ultimately from Latin episcopus 'bishop'.
easgaidh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'Quagmire'. c.f. G easg 'ditch formed by nature, fen, bog' (gen. sing. easga) (Dwelly).
Edgar 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
An Old English personal name, but also a later medieval family-name which was well-established in Galloway (Black 1954, 238).
eel 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'an eel', Anguilla anguilla, once common throughout Britain, now rare.
èildear 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. èildeir. 'An elder' (of the church).
eilean 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
m., gen. sing. eilein. 'island'.
Ó Maolalaigh has discussed this element in some detail in connection with the Buchan place-name Ellon ABD, clearly demonstrating that it can also refer to inland topographical features such as pieces of raised (and therefore dry) land surrounded by or bordered by water or by marshy ground (2008, 221–2).
Modern Gaelic eilean derives from older Gaelic ailén. The appearance of the element in Kirkcudbrightshire in names beginning Allan- suggests that the pronunciation of the name reflects the older form of the word.
There is a possibility of confusion with G àilean 'green, plain, meadow'.
eileirg 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
One traditional method of hunting deer was to drive them into a trap or eilrig, made of walls, natural features, windings and hedges etc., and kill them there when they were unable to escape. This was usually a V-shaped feature, so that the animals drawn from a wider area could be concentrated in a small killing spot at the apex.
Not listed by Angus Watson dictionary; listed as eileircg by Maclennan 1979, éileag by Dwelly. Discussed by W.J. Watston (1926, 183, 184, 489); also means 'ambush' (Watson 1926 489).
It may be that G eileirg was loaned into some varieties of Scots, but in the absence of documentary evidence we must assume that names in Eldrick were probably Gaelic coinings.
eireachd 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Gender F
'An assembly, a gathering of freemen for decision-making'. It is oireacht in Irish Gaelic (masculine). In Old Gaelic we find airecht, also occurring as oirecht, 'public assembly, court, gathering'.
elf 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'An elf', the legendary fairy-like creature.
end 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'end', used to mark an object as lying at the end of some feature - a hill, road, etc.
end 1 historical form15 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'An end', the end-point of a feature such as a hill, a bank, a wood, a town.
Eoghan 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Gender M
Appearing later Eòghann, and anglicised as Ewan.
eòrna 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. eòrna. 'Barley'. While it is commonly masculine in Scottish Gaelic, it is feminine in Irish Gaelic, andapparently also in Manx place-names (garey ny h-oarn in Isle of Man) and may also have been feminine in Galloway (pers. comm. Michael Ansell).
erne 4 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
This is word is not attested in Scots dictionaries, but it is suggested on the basis of place-names Blackerne, Halferne and Chapelerne (all in CMI). It is a loan-word from G earrann, a word for a land-division, which appears in several other Gaelic place-names in CMI.
eun 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. eòin, nom. pl. eòin, gen. pl. eun. 'A bird'. OG én.
faiche 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'Meadow, lawn, green, field' (also spelt faithche).
fàl 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. fàil , 'pen for stray cattle or sheep, a wall, hedge or dyke', among other meanings given by Dwelly. From OG fál 'fence, hedge, enclosure' (DIL).
It is sometimes found in a form assimilated to Sc fauld, or SSE fold, which means roughly the same thing. See for example Márkus, The Place-Names of Bute (Donington 2012), 83-4.
fasgadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. fasgaidh, pl. fasgaidhean. 'Protection, shelter, refuge, shadow, fold (for cattle or sheep)'.
fauld 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘A fold, pen; enclosed piece of ground used for cultivation, small field’; chiefly in plural ‘the part of the outfield that was manured by folding cattle on it’ (eighteenth/nineteenth century)’ (CSD). Note that the word was also loaned into Gaelic, appearing in early modern Gaelic place-names as Fald- (Márkus 2012, 548), though it does not appear in modern Gaelic dictionaries.
feannag 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing, feannaig; pl. feannagan. 'Carion crow (corvus corone), rook, rig, a ridge of ground used for growing potatoes'.
feàrnach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Abounding in alder trees, pertaining to or made of alder trees'.
fell 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A steep, rocky hill; a tract of hill-moor', frequently in place-names 15- (CSD2).
fell 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A mountain, hill, fell'. Also Sc. with same meaning.
fen 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Marsh, boggy land, land partly covered with water', usually with peat and/or characteristic plants - sedge, coarse grass, reeds and other aquatic plants.
fionn 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'white bright, pale'. Sometimes used in place-names as one of a contrastive pair, fionn vs. dubh. Unlike most adjectives it often appears before the noun it qualifies in place-names.
Fionnagán 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
Maxwell (1930, 25) says of the personal name Finnigan, from Fionnagán, that it is 'still not infrequent in Galloway'.
fireach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. fireich. 'Hill, moor, mountain, high barren ground' (Dwelly).
fitheach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. fithich. 'A raven (corvus corax)'.
flagged 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'covered in, or abounding in, flagstones'.
fold 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'An animal enclosure, enclosed field or piece of ground'.
folk 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Folk, people, two or more persons, community'.
folly 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A whimsical building, often with in-built spurious antiquity', or 'something created in foolish hope of success'.
foot 16 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A foot', usually in place-names referring to a place being at the lower end or foot of some feature - a road, a hill, a burn etc.
forc 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. fuirc. 'A fork'. In place-names presumably refers to some forked feature of the landscape.
forkin 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'The place where a river divides into two or more streams' (CSD).
fortypenny 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
A monetary value, forty pennies, which make one quarter of a Scots mark, one sixth of a pound.
fowk 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Folk, people, humans as opposed to animals, a community of people'.
fute 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A foot', often used of the lowest part of some feature - Burnfoot, Hillfoot etc. Also Sc fit, foot. See SSE foot also.
gadhar 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gadhair. 'Lurcher, greyhound'.
gàinneach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Abounding in reeds'; also 'like a reed'.
gairbheach 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
Not attested in dictionaries, nor listed in Watson (1926). But it appears in the name Dochgarroch (dabhach+ gairbheach) close to Inverness, and in the Gaelic name for the Battle of Harlaw (Cath Gairbheach). It is a reflex of G garbh 'rough', meaning 'rough place', perhaps reflecting the rocky or boulder-strewn character of the landsacpe.
gairy 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Also Sc. gairy, 'a vertical outcrop of rock, a precipice, crag'.
gairy1 5 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A vertical outcrop of rock, a crag' 19- (CSD2).
gall 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gaill 'rock, stone, boulder, cliff'; from OG gall 'standing stone, pillar stone'. It may be that this word and the identical G gall meaning 'foreigner' are originally the same word, the word being applied to certain rocks which looked 'foreign' or 'alien' in the landscape in which they were placed (Márkus 2012, 549).
gamhainn 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gaimhne or gamhna; gen. pl. gamhna. 'Yearling calf, young cow, stirk, steer, young bullock' (Dwelly).
gamhnach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Farrow cow', i.e. one that is still giving milk from previous calvings, but has not calved this year. It may also serve as an adjective, 'associated with a calf (gamhainn) or calves'.
garadh 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'wall, fence', and perhaps therefore 'place enclosed by such a wall'. This word appears in Irish legal texts (as gárad) referring to enclosures. and is not the same word as G gàrradh meaning 'enclosure', which is a loan-word from Old Norse garδ(r) 'enclosure, wall, fence'. For discussion see Taylor with Márkus v, 383.
There is another meaning of garadh (from OG garad 'den.cave'). It may not be connected to the first meaning discussed above. Watson also sees the word as meaning 'thicket, copse' (1926, 471).
gàrradh 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gàrraidh, 'a wall, a stone dyke, enclosed area or patch of ground'. Also spelt gàradh (Dwelly). This is a loan-word from Old Norse, garðr 'fence, wall, enclosed space'.
garth 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'An enclosure, yard, garden'; sometimes perhaps 'a shallow part of a river or stretch of shingle used as a ford' (CSD). From ON gardr, 'fence, yard'.
gasgan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gasgain. 'Puppy', and a range of other meanings: 'little tail’ (hence a small ridge), ‘the place where a plateau runs to an acute angle and narrows to vanishing point’, or ‘rushy hollow’.
gate 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A gate', an entrance into the curtilage of a house, a garden, park, field etc.
geamhradh 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. geamhraidh, 'winter'. It may be realised in OS place-names as Garry-, as in Glengarry (see Watston 1926, 431-2). OG gam 'winter'; OG gemred or gaimred, 'winter'
geàrr 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Short'. May appear before the noun it qualifies in place-names.
geàrr-fhiadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. geàrr-fhéidh. 'A hare.'
gearran 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gearrain. 'Horse, hack, gelding'.
geasag 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. giseig. ‘charm, spell, superstitious ceremony, witchcraft (Sutherland), kiss (Gairloch)’.
gibbet 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A gallows, gibbet', but also 'a bracket for hanging a bucket on' (DOST), 'a bracket for hanging a pot over a fire' (SND).
Gille-Thoim 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
A name meaning 'servant of Thomas', reconstructed from the Gaelic surname Macilwham, Macilwhan, Maciquham etc., son of the servant of Thomas.
Gillebrigte 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
In modern Gaelic more commonly Gillebride.
giusaidh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. giusaidh. 'A sow, pig'. Dwelly says feminine, but masculine in Pertshire.
glas 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'green, grey, grey-green'. Compare W. glas 'green, blue', reminding us that names that seem to contain this Gaelic element may actually contain the British cognate.
gleann 15 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. glinne. 'Glen, valley'.
gled, glaid 4 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'The red kite Milvus milvus', frequently in place-names 12- (CSD2). It may also refer to the buzzard.
glen 27 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A (deep) valley, a glen'; also Scots.
glen 6 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A (narrow, steep-sided) mountain valley traversed by a river or stream' la12- (CSD2).
glinn 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'valley, dell'. cf. modern Welsh glyn.
glòr 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'bright, clean, clear' (OG gleóir 'clear, luminous, bright')
goat 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A goat'. This might be wild or domestic. Wild goats are not uncommon in Galloway.
goathouse 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A building or enclosure for accommodating or milking goats'.
goban 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sg. gobain. 'Little beak', a diminutive of G gob, 'beak of a bird', also 'mouth'.
gobha 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gobhainn, 'smith, blacksmith'. There is a variant form, nom. sing. and gen. sing. gobhainn, pl. goibhnean, 'smith, blacksmith'; also gen. sing. gobhann, gen. sing, gobhainn, pl. goibhean (Dwelly). All these derive from OG goba, gen. sing. gobann 'a smith', later also nom. sing. gobann.
gobhal 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gobhail and goibhle. 'A fork, the forked part of anything'.
gobhar 6 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. goibhre and gobhair; nom. pl. goibhrean, gobhraichean, gobhair, gen. pl. gobhar or goibhrean. 'A goat'.
Goodman 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
A personal name deriving from Sc guidman. q.v.
gorman 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. gormain. A diminutive of gorm 'blue, green, grassy', meaning 'cornflower, woad, green knoll' - or perhaps other small green/blue things.
Gourley 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
Black has Gourlay as the standard spelling (1954, 321).
gowan 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Daisy' is the usual explanation of the word, but its Sc origin refers to a number of wildflowers, 'either yellow or white with yellow centres, e.g. various species of the Ranunculus family (Sc. 1808 Jam.)' the buttercup or meadow crowfoot, the creeping meadow crowfoot, the marsh marigold, the corn marigold, the dandelion, the lesser celandine. For these and other flowers that might be gowans, see DSL. Also note that iti is a variant of northern English gollan, a term for various yellow flowers (DOST).
grain 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'branch or offshoot', often of a stream, a valley or hill.
grange 1 historical form
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A grange; (monastic) farm’; also Scots. Derek Hall, in his book on the impact of the medieval monasteries on the Scottish landscape, describes a grange as follows: ‘The grange or estate centre formed the main focus of control for a monastic house on its landholdings’ (2006, 17). A large part of his book is taken up by a ‘Gazetteer of Scottish Monastic Granges’ (86–202), the Borders section, including Berwickshire (144–61), compiled by Ray Cachart, containing 26 entries of sites identified by documentary evidence and/or place-name as those of monastic granges.
green 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Green, grass-covered’ (CSD), in place-names often indicative of good grazing. Also SSE.
greigh 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. greighe. 'Horse-stud, herd of horses', or in more modern Gaelic, 'flock, herd' (of other animals). OG graig, gen. sing. grega or graga, 'horses' (collective noun), horse-stud, etc. either masculine or feminine.
greve 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Also grew, graw, greave et sim. Apparently a bush (DOST), from OE graéf 'bush, bramble' (Bosworth Toller).
grian 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
Obsolete, according to Dwelly. 'Gravel'. c.f. OG grian 'gravel, sand etc.'.
grianach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
with alternative *greanach, 'gravelly, sandy', and in place-names 'gravelly/sandy place'. Though grianach and greanach are no longer in modern Gaelic dictionaries (Dwelly, Watson), OG gríanach is found in DIL with this meaning.
Not to be cofnused with G grianach meaning 'sunny'.
grianan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. grianain. 'Sunny spot, summer house, place were peats are dried (in the sun and wind), green, sunny eminence' (Dwelly). See G grian, gréine, 'sun'.
gualann 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. gualainn. 'Shoulder', used both of body parts and landscape features.
guidman 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'The head of a household, the owner or tenant of a farm', no matter how large, who held his land not of the crown but of a fellow-subject. In this sense it became a surname (see Black 1946). But it was also used to mean 'the devil' or other superstitious being. For this meaning of the term in relation to pieces of land 'set aside' for the devil or guidman, see Lyle 2013.
gully 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A gully, a cleft, a channel for (or worn by) water'.
gutter 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Water channel, mire, marsh,, muddy puddles' (CSD).
hack 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'wild, rocky moorland or moss' (especially noted in Galloway) (SND).
hag 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A soft marshy hollow piece of ground in a moor, e.g. where channels have been made by water or where peats have been cut; “moss-ground that has formerly been broken up; a pit, or break in a moss”’ (Jamieson, Dictionary etc.). ‘Also used attributively and in such combinations as moss-hag, peat-hag, etc. Now General Scots. Also found in northern English dialect' (adapted from SND).
Another quite distinct meaning of Sc hag is 'a notch, hack; portion of a wood marked for felling; brushwood, felled wood used for fuel'.
hag 4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: V
'to hack, cut, chop; to cut down trees'. Also Sc
halfmark 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Half of a mark', a mark being a Sc unit of currency (two thirds of a pound).
hall 12 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A large, spacious building, the residence of a landowner' 14-; 'a large public meeting room' la16-; 'a farmhouse, the main dwelling of a farm or estate' 18- (CSD2). As in Scots, it can be used ironically coupled with a low-status specific.
hall 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A large, spacious building, the residence of a landowner' 14-; 'a large public meeting room' la16-; 'a farmhouse, the main dwelling of a farm or estate' 18- (CSD2). The term has undergone a semantic change known as 'deterioration'; thus the characteristic referent moves from a high-status to a low-status building, as reflected in the dates above and in the low-status specifics with which it frequently combines in later names.
Ham 1 place-name
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
A biblical personal name, Ham the son of Noah.
hard 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Hard'; when applied in place-names it can refer to hardness of the soil, also 'stoney' or 'difficult to cultivate'.
haugh 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Level ground, usually on the bank of a river, river-meadow land’. It is a development of OE halh, translated by Smith as ‘a nook, a corner of land, a water-meadow’ (1956, s.v.). See under halh for more details.
hause 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
with variants, hass, hals etc. , 'neck' and hence 'narrow place, defile'.
hawse 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Opening, gap, passage between hills, narrow ridge between two heights on a watershed' (DSL)
head 27 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A head, end, top'; also Scots, often as heid.
heid 6 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘Head, end, top’. In late coinings, or names which appear late in the record (i.e. post 1750 or thereabouts) it is not always possible to distinguish between Scots heid and SSE head. Locally both are heard depending on the language of the speaker.
hell 1 place-name
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
The place of eternal punishment, imagined as being dark, dangerous, diabolical, and often underground. Any of these aspects may motivate a place-name.
hen 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A hen', either female domestic fowl or perhaps female game-birds, the complement of the many cocks which appear in place-names.
high 15 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'high', often used contrastively, sometimes with reference to places further upstream on a river than the place with which it is contrasted, or with another part of an extensive settlement situated on lower ground.
hill 385 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A hill'; can also be Scots. It may refer not only to 'hill' in the usual sense of 'higher ground', but also to a particular kind of vegetation and ground-cover, and by implication the kind of farming that could be conducted on it. Thus a farmer could say, 'This field was all hill till my father cleared the whin off it.'
hill 2 historical forms24 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N, Gender N
'A hill'; also 'upland grazing'. It may refer not only to 'hill' in the usual sense of 'higher ground', but also to a particular kind of vegetation and ground-cover, and by implication the kind of farming that could be conducted on it. Thus a farmer could say, 'This field was all hill till my father cleared the whin off it.'
hog 7 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A young sheep, one before it is shorn of its first fleece' (CSD).
hole 8 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A hole', and perhaps also 'a hollow', and anglicised version of howe 'hollow, depression, low-lying ground'.
holm 5 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Low, flat riverside land', can also be 'an island in a river'. Variant in Sc. howm (CSD)
holm 17 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Low, flat riverside land', can also be 'an island in a river'.
hope 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘A small enclosed upland valley’; ‘a sloping hollow between two hills’ . Also Sc with the same meaning.
house 17 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A house'; in place-names often referring to a relatively grand dwelling.
howe 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'a hollow, depression, low-lying ground'. Also Sc.
howe 5 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘A hollow or low-lying piece of ground’ (SND); also how, earlier holl and hol(e). It can also be an adjective ‘hollow, deep-set’ as well as being used attributively as in how road ‘a hollow way’ (SND).
howlat 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'An owl'. Also in later Sc hoolet &c. (CSD). Not to be confused with the word owlet in modern SSE which means 'baby owl or young owl'.
hurkle doun 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Ph
'Crouch, sit huddled in a crouched position, walk in a crouching position', and figuratively 'submit'.
inbhir 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. inbhir. 'River- or stream-mouth, confluence'. Dwelly also records the spelling ionbhar.
iolair 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. iolaire, or iolarach. 'Eagle'. The term is useed both of the golden eagle (iolair bhuidhe) and the sea-eagle or white-tailed eagle (iolair mhara).
ìosal 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Low, not high, humble', may be used in contrast to uasal 'high, proud noble'.
kiln 8 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A kiln'. In place-names the kiln referred to may typically be a corn-drying kiln, or a lime kiln. Perhaps sometimes the feature named was perceived as having the shape of a kiln.
#industry
kirk 4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A church'; used both in Scots and SSE.
kirk 1 historical form
Language: S (OE), Part of Speech: N
'A church', borrowed from Old Norse - where Old English normally had a palatalised form of the word, which gives church. Note that this Old Norse word was also borrowed into Galloway Gaelic, giving rise to 'inversion compounds' - which are actually no such thing, but ordinary compounds of Gaelicl *kirk in Gaelic word-order - Kirkcudbright, Kirkandrews, Kirkchrist, Kirkgunzeon etc.
kirk* 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'A church'. Surprisingly, though this element should in general be regarded as Sc or SSE (though its origin lies in Old Norse kirkja 'a church'), the appearance of kirk in a group of 'inversion compound' names such as Kircudbright and Kirkanders (generic followed by specific) seems to reflect the local adoption of kirk into Galloway Gaelic at least as a place-name element (if not in ordinary speech). The Gaelic-looking order of elements in the name Kirkanders also appears in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when we know that Gaelic was the main spoken language in this area.
The form kirk is preferred here, although the letter k is not usually used as part of the Gaelic alphabet, because it is the common form of the name in Gaelic-origin place-names in Galloway, even during the Gaelic-speaking period in the area.
kirkland 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Land belonging to the kirk or church', also SSE.
kirktoun 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'the village or town where the parish kirk stands'.
kirn 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A churn', also Sc. In place-names it may refer to 'a natural feature resembling a churn in noise, motion or shape’ (CSD).
knock 5 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'a small hill', a loan word from Gaelic cnoc. Also SSE. It may be that some names of the form 'Knock-X' have been coined in Sc or SSE, using a pattern familiar from Gaelic place-names.
knotty 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
From Sc knot (varr. noit, noyti etc.), 'a lump, a chunk'.
ladhar 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. ladhair 'toe, hoof, prong, fork'. In Irish Gaelic it appears as a word for a fork in the sense of a place where two rivers or glens join together (McKay 2007, 153).
lag 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. luig or laig. 'Hollow, pit den, cave'.
lagan 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. lagain, 'little hollow', a diminutive of lag.
lagh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'A hill'. It is not certain that this word exists. Joyce (The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, Dublin 1910) asserts its use in Irish place-names, and states: 'Lagh [law] a hill cognate with Ang. Sax. law, same meaning. It is not given in the dictionaries, but it undoubtedly exists in the Irish language, and has given names to a considerable number of places through the country, of which the following may be taken as examples: Portlaw on the Suir in Waterford ..... Ballinla and Ballinglaw, the town of the hill, Luggelaw in Wicklow ...., Clonderlaw in Cork and Clare, the meadow between the two hills' (p. 391).
Whether Joyce is correct in his analysis of the selected names is perhaps not certain, nor can I find any reference to this element in Scottish Gaelic sources. Nevertheless, the hill-name Lawglass would fit his explanation perfectly well, and may be evidence that Old English hláw 'a hill' (or perhaps Sc law) was indeed borrowed into Gaelic as lagh with the same meaning.
lair 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A place where cattle or sheep lie down; a part of a pasture where cattle or sheep go or are taken to rest’ (DOST); similarly CSD. Also Scots.
làir 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. làiridh or làrach. 'A mare'.
lane 1 historical form22 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'a slow-moving, winding stream; a marshy meadow’ (CSD2). Its distribution as a place-name element is restricted to Galloway (including parts of Dumfriesshire) and west Ayrshire, where it refers exclusively to a slow-moving, boggy burn. It is very probably a loan-word into Scots from Gaelic lèana ‘a marsh, marshy meadow’. In Galloway Gaelic lèana appears to have developed the meaning ‘slow-moving, boggy burn etc.’ before it was borrowed into Scots. It is discussed in some detail by Nicolaisen 1962 [Nicolaisen, W.F.H., 1962 ‘Notes on Scottish Place-names: 18. Lane in Galloway’, Scottish Studies 6, 85-7].
lann 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. lainn. 'An enclosure, house, settlement'.
laogh 1 historical form8 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. laoigh, 'calf', i.e. 'the young of a cow or deer'.
làr 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Floor, ground, earth, level place'.
Laurie 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
subject to many variations such as Lawrie, Lowry, Laury, Larrie, Lourie etc. See Black 1954 s.n. Laurie.
law 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A hill'; also SSE. See discussion in Place-Names of Fife 5, Elements Glossary under law.
leamhan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. leamhain. 'Elm tree, ulnus campestris' or its wood.
leamhanach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'Place abounding in elm-trees, elm-wood', from G leamhan 'elm' + suffix -ach.
learg 1 historical form8 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. leirg. 'Slope, plain, field, little eminence, small hill, beaten path, sloping declivity of a hill' (Dwelly). OG lerg 'sloping expanse, hillside', also 'level surface, sea-shore' (a feminine noun in OG). (DIL).
leth-pheighinn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'A half penny' referring in place-names to older land-assessment volues.
ley 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Tilled ground now pasture, open grassland’, CSD; i; 'untilled ground, ground which has been left fallow for some time and is now covered by grass, ground that has been tilled and which is now in pasture; originally part of the outfield; the second meaning is in rotational farming: the first crop of corn after grass, a shortened form of lea or ley corn. From OE *lǣge- "fallow"' (SND); OSc ley(e), lay lie etc. ‘lea, or land which has been left untilled for some time and allowed to return to grass, arable land under grass used as pasture; also, a piece of such land, and plural’ (DOST). Smith defines OE lǣge (adj.) as ‘fallow, unploughed, lying untilled’, pointing out that in OE it is only found in compounds, but is in more general use in ME as leye, laye (1955 ii, s.v.).
lias 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. leis. 'A hut for calves or lambs, a sheep-cot'. OG lias 'a pen or fold'.
liggat 6 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Self-closing gate', frequently used of one shutting off pasture from arable land. OSc lidyate, OE hildgeat 'folding door, hinged gate'.
linn 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Also lin, lyn(n), lyne etc. (1) ‘waterfall, cataract’ (2) ‘pool below a waterfall’. Sense (1) derives from OE hlynn ‘torrent’, literally ‘the noisy one’ (CSD and Smith 1956 i, 254); sense (2) derives from G linn(e) ‘pool’ (CSD).
linne 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. linne, plural linnteachan, linntean, linnichean, etc (Dwelly). 'Pool, pond, lake, mill-dam, channel, cataract, waterfall'. A wide range of watery features are covered by this term.
lios 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. lise or liosa. 'Enclosure, stall for cattle, garden, habitation, palace, fortified place'. From OG les, gen. sing. lis, a masculine noun, 'space about a dwelling house enclosed by a bank or rampart, farmyard, courtyard, palisade, stockade, rampart, circular earthwork, ringfort' etc. (DIL).
little 18 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Small in quantity or size' la14-; of two places of the same name 'smaller or less important'; frequently in place-names la14- (CSD2). Also Scots.
little 1 historical form7 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Small in quantity or size' la14-; of two places of the same name 'smaller or less important'; frequently in place-names la14- (CSD2).
Livingston 1 place-name
Language: S (en)
an estate wn in West Lothian, and by their tenure of that estate the name of a family
loch 3 historical forms26 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. locha, rarely luich (Dwelly), 'loch, lake'.
loch 37 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A loch, a lake'; also Scots, a loan-word from Gaelic loch.
loch 2 historical forms15 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A loch, a lake'; also SSE.
Loch Lee 1 place-name
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
Its identity is unknown. It is not even known whether it is a Gaelic or a Scots name.
lochan 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A small loch', a word loaned from G lochan, a diminutive of loch 'a loch'.
lochan 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. lochain. 'A little loch, pool', a diminutive form of G loch.
lock 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Device for lowering and raising water levels in a canal'.
lodge 9 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A gate-house'; also 'a hut, a shelter'. It can also refer to a small, remote house, as in Lockies Lodge, a small house in the Lammermuirs occupied by a (shep)herd.
lòin 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. lòine. 'A small stream, rivulet', now obsolete according to Dwelly.
loisgte 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'burned, scorched, parched', but may also refer to colours in landscape, the colour of something that has been scorched.
lomhainn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. lomhainne. 'Pack of hounds'
lòn 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. lòin. 'Meadow, marsh, pond, pool'.
longphort 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. longphuirt. It appears in other guises in modern Gaelic: laghart, luincheart, longart etc. For discussion see Taylor with Márkus v, 430-1.
OG longphort 'camp, encampment, temporary stronghold' (DIL).
loop 8 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Bend or loop', in a river or burn, or perhaps in a road. It may be that its use in place-names is shaped by G lùb, in turn from OG lúb 'bend, loop, ring, circle'.
lorg 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. luirge. 'Staff, crutch, haft, straight stick, footstep, track, path, leg, shank, thigh', and several other meanings, mostly indicating long thin things.
low 20 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Low', often used in place-names as one of a contrastive pair, low vs high.
lower 2 historical forms3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
This is the SSE equivalent of Scots nether.
luachair 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. luachrach. OG lúachair (collective noun, gen. sing. lúarchra) 'rushy place', also appearing as lóchair 'rushes, rushy place, marsh'.
lùb 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. lùib, 'bend, curve, loop', OG lúb 'loop, ring, circle'.
lubhan 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. lubhain (with variants luan, luain), now obsolete. 'A lamb'.
luch 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'marsh, marshy water', cf. modern Welsh llwch 'lake, pool, marksh'.
lump 1 historical form4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A lump', referring to the shape of a piece of land. Also Sc. It may also be used of pieces of land set to rent (SND).
Macgillewinnin 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
The name means 'son of the servant/devotee of [saint] Uinnian'. The name appears as that of a member of the entourage of the bishop of Whithorn in 1167 x 1186 as Macgillegunni (Holyrood Charters no. 25).
MacKill 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
A Galloway surname (Black 1954, 529), possibly a variant of McGill (see the entries for 1592).
MacLellan 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
A surname common in Galloway, MacLellan is Mac Gill' Fhaolain, 'son of the servant of Fillan (Fáelán in older Gaelic)'.
MacNeillie 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
‘A Galloway surname. Probably from Ir. Mac an Fhileadh or Mac an Fhilidh, ‘son of the poet,’ file, a name almost peculiar to N.E. Ulster .... now often shortened to NEIL in Galloway’ (Black 1946, 550).
MacWhannel 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
May be shorterned to Whannel (Black 1954, 571, 810).
madadh 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. madaidh. 'A dog' or 'any wild animal of the dog species, a wolf or fox'. OG matad 'a dog, common cur'. Note also that madaidh uisge 'water dogs' is also used for 'otters'.
magh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
‘A field, level country, plain’; gen. sing. maigh or magha, OG mag (n.), gen. sing. maige, ‘plain, level ground’, usually with good agricultural potential.
mainistir 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'monastery'. Dwelly records an alternative nom. sing. mainistear, gen. sing. mainistir, from Armstrong's dictionary of Perthshire Gaelic.
mains 7 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
‘The home farm of an estate, cultivated by or for the proprietor’, ultimately from Latin dominicum ‘the lord’s (lands)’, via Old French demeine, whence also English demesne (also English domain) (OED). Also Scots.
mains 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘The home farm of an estate, cultivated by or for the proprietor’, ultimately from Latin dominicum ‘the lord’s (lands)’, via Old French demeine, whence also English demesne (also English domain) (OED). Also SSE.
manach 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. manaich. gen. pl. manach. 'A monk, a friar', a loan word originally from Latin monachus 'monk'.
maol 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. maoil. 'Great bare rounded hill' is the most likely meaning in place-names, but also meaning 'brow of a rock, cape, promontory, mull forhead, hald head etc.' (Dwelly).
maolan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
a diminutive of G maol 'brow of a rock, cape, promontory'.
marc 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing., mairc, pl. marcan. 'Horse, steed', generally a better class of horse rather than an old nag.
marcach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. marchaich. 'Horseman, rider, knight etc.', fromm G marc 'horse, steed', usually a superior class of horse.
marg 9 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. mairg. 'merk' or 'mark', the Scottish coin which was worth 2/3 of a pound, 13s. 4d., commonly used in land-assessment and taxation, and reflected in place-names as multiples or fractions of a mark.
margadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. margaidh. 'Market, fair'. It can be either masculine or feminine.
mark 12 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
A unit of currency or a unit of land valued at one mark (13 shillings and four pence).
màrla 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Marl, a kind of clay' (Dwelly). OG marla.
McCubbin 3 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
This is a very common name in Dumfriesshire and the Stewartry. It means 'son of Cubbin', which (according to Black is a mutation of the surname Gibbon, though we may doubt this) (Black 1946, 482). It is also sometimes reduced to Cubbie or Cubby.
meall 10 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'lump, heap (as of a hill), eminence, great shapeless hill'.
meikle 7 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'great, large'. Also Sc meikle, muckle, mekill, mikill etc.
meirleach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. meirlich; pl. meirlich. 'A thief'.
miasdadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. miasdaidh. 'Mischief done by cows and horses that have broken loose in corn' (Dwelly, locating the word in Uist).
Michael 5 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
Michael is the Sc/SSE version of the name. In Gaelic names it will be Mìcheal, or in the genitive case Mhìcheil .
mid 20 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj, Gender N
'being in the middle, in between two or more things'.
mid 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'lying in between, in the midle'. Also SSE.
midgie 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A midge', the infuriating blood-sucking insect. Also Sc.
milky 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Milky, or associated with milk perhaps'.
mill 28 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A mill'. cf. Sc miln, sometimes also mill.
miln 9 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A mill'. Also appears as Sc mill. c.f. SSE mill.
minister 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Usually, in Scottish place-names, an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland.
mòd 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. mòid. 'Court, assembly, meeting, moot'.
mòine 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. mòna 'moss, bog, peat'.
mòinteach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. mòinteich. 'Mossy place, moss, peat-moss, moorland'.
monadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. monaidh, 'mountain, moor, heathy hill ground'. In some cases where monadh might be suggested, we should also consider the possibility of an earlier British *minith (cf Welsh mynydd) 'hill, mountain, moorland, common or rough grazing'.
mos 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'A bog, peat-bog, boggy ground, wet moorland etc.'
The existence of some names in SW contining Moss- as their generic first element, followed by a Gaelic specific second element (i.e. in Gaelic word-order) strongly suggests that OE or Sc moss was loaned into Gaelic at some point in the interaction of the two languages. For this suggestion see T.O. Clancy's blog, 'Gathering about Moss' (10 August 2020) at https://kcb-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/gatherings-about-moss/.
moss 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Boggy ground, moorland', also 'a peat bog; a stretch of moorland allocated to tenants for cutting fuel' (CSD2).
Note that this word, or its older Northumbrian origin, seems to have been loaned into Gaelic in SW Scotland. For discussion of this process see T.O. Clancy's blog, 'Gatherings about Moss' (10 August 2020) at https://kcb-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/gatherings-about-moss/.
moss 29 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A marsh, bog, tract of wet ground’, also ‘a bog from which peats are dug, a moorland allocated to tenants of an estate for cutting fuel’ (CSD). Also Scots. This is to be distinguished from SSE moss referring to the plant.
mote 19 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Also moat, Sc mote, 'mound, hillock, embankment' (CSD) but sometimes refers to the mounds of medieval fortified sites known as mottes in English - the mound part of the complex feature known as a motte-and-bailey.
mote 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Also moat, and SSE mote, 'mound, hillock, embankment' (CSD) but sometimes refers to the mounds of medieval fortified sites known as mottes in English - the mound part of the complex feature known as a motte-and-bailey.
mount 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A (small) hill'; it is often used in an antiquarian or fanciful way to refer to small hills or (artificial) mounds.
mowdie 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A mole', a shortened form of mowdiewort, mowdiewarp etc.
muidhe 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. muidhe, pl. muidhean or muidheachan, 'churn'.
muileann 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. muilinn. 'Mill'. It appears as masculine or feminine in various dialects.
muir 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A stretch of rough grazing'; often confused with Scots and SSE moor.
muir 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A muir; a stretch of rough grazing, a tract or expanse of heath; barren open country', also 'rough, uncultivated land belonging to an individual proprietor or estate', or 'unenclosed uncultivated ground; the common land belonging to a burgh' (CSD2).
mulan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. mulain. 'Small hill, heap, conical hillock'.
mullach 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. mullaich. 'Top, height, hill, summit etc.'.
multach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'Associated with wethers'. The word is not attested in dictionaries, but mult + -ach suffix is a perfectly normal formation, whether the suffix is adjectival or locational.
munshock 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Red whortleberry’ or ‘blaeberry’ (Vaccinium myrtillus), a term which itself is derived from G mòinteach ‘mossy place, peat-moss, moorland’, i.e. the type of place where this plant is found.
naomh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. naoimh. 'A saint'. To be distinguished from the adjectival form, naomh, meaning 'holy'.
naze 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Headland, promontory, a "nose" in the landscape'. It appears in southern Scottish place-names such as Rough Naze and Herd Naze in Nithsdale; sometimes assimilated to SSE knees, as in Calf Knees and Jedburgh Knees CPH. According to Drummond (1991, 48), it may have its origins in Norse naasi 'flattish-topped round-ended snow-sprinkled buttresses' recorded by the nineteenth-century climber Cecil Slingsby in Norway.
neasgaid 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'boil, ulcer, lump, carbuncle'
nether 18 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Lower'. Note that this may mean 'downstream' in some cases, rather than referring to the actual height of the place.
neuk 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘A nook, outlying or remote place, an obscure corner, a lurking place’ (CSD), also ‘projecting corner of land’.
nick 7 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A narrow gap in a range of hills' (CSD2).
odhar 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'brown, dun-coloured, sallow, pale, drab, yellowish'. OG odor 'dun, greyish brown'.
oir 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. oire, 'border, edge, margin, limit, boundary, coast'. OG or 'boundary, limit, extreme', with ur in some instances of oblique cases.
old 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Old', either in the sense of 'antique' or in the sense of 'former'.
or 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N
'boundary, edge, limit, margin, coast' etc.
os 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. osa or ois. It may be masc. or fem. 'Deer, stag'.
park 4 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
In Older Scots it is defined as ‘a piece of land enclosed for a particular purpose; originally a tract of land in which beasts of chase were kept; a piece of enclosed woodland or forest;’ also ‘land set aside for recreation; gardens'; and ‘a meadow or pasturage; a field (? chiefly or only, for grazing)’ (DOST). In modern Scots, and to some extent in SSE, it is this final meaning, which has come to dominate, applied to any kind of field. It is found as both a specific and a generic in place-names.
park 20 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
‘Park, a piece of land enclosed for a particular purpose, a field’; in names dating from the middle ages, it always refers to land emparked or enclosed for hunting. In modern times it is a standard Scots and SSE word for a field. Also Scots.
parrock 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A small enclosure or pen for animals', also Sc. It is especially used for familiarising a sheep with a strange or neglected lamb (CSD). Old English pearroc 'fence, enclosure', and thus connected to SSE park, and paddock.
Patrick 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
In Gaelic, the name is Pàdruig. One must use the context of the name to assess what language it was coined in.
pearsan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. pearsain. A variant of G pearsa, pearsan is 'person', but in place-names and personal names, 'parson' (i.e. an ordained minister of the church). A loan word from Latin persona.
peel 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A palisade or fence of stakes, a stockade; the ground enclosed by such' (SND). See also the elements Scots pilmuir and Scots peelrig. A fortified building, tower (CSD).
pen 1 place-name
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Head, top, summit, hill, end, uplands'.
pere 1 place-name
Language: S (OE), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'A pear'. Where this is suggested as an element in a place-name, consider also pirige 'a pear tree'.
Peter 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
Personal name, may appear as Patie, Pete, etc.
physic 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'medically profitable, healing, healthful'.
piper 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A person who plays the pipes, the bagpipe'.
plan 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
‘A plot of ground, an allotted rig on the runrig system, a croft’ (SND).
plantation 2 historical forms36 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A plantation (of trees)'.
planting 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
A 'planting', of trees, i.e. a plantation.
plea 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'an action in law, a plea, a lawsuit', or sometimes simply 'a quarrel or disagreement'.
ploc 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. pluic. 'A lump, round mass'.
point 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A point; a headland'. Also perhaps, 'a point on the ground, or some pointed or angled feature', as in Squarepoint CMI.
Pointfoot 3 place-names
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
A farm in Glencairn parish at NX751865.
poll 1 historical form34 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. puill. 'A hole, pool, pit, pond, deep stagnant water, dark and deep part of any stream'. These are the usual meanings of poll in Gaelic, but a peculiar southern dialectal form has emerged in which it is used to name fairly lively or even fast-flowing streams, and that seems to be the case for most instances of poll in the Galloway Glens.
Polskeoch 1 place-name
Language: S (en), Part of Speech: P
A farm in Penpont parish at NS687023, but originally the name of a burn which flowed close to the farmsteading.
port 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A port, haven, harbour'. Perhaps even a mere jetty would suffice, as in the likely case of Port Rig DAY.
port 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. puirt. 'A port, harbour', but also 'ferry, passage, strait'.
porter 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'a porter; a carrier'. Note also it is a technical weaving term (see SND under porter).
pound 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'One pound', a unit of currency/value, equal to twenty shillings.
putting 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
a sport involving throwing a heavy object
pyot 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Generally 'a magpie', but it may also refer to other black and white pied birds such as oyster catcher.
quarrel 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A quarrel, argument, legal dispute'.
quarrel 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A stone quarry' or 'stone taken from a quarry'.
raineach 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. rainich. 'Fern, bracken'. Earlier raithneach, OG raithnech 'fern, bracken'. See also G ràith. Dwelly offers raithne as a variant. Watson (1926, 519) discusses reithneach 'bracken' as a variant of this word, giving rise to Kilrennie in Fife as he supposes (though Taylor & Markus have identified this name as containing a version of the saint-name Ethernan - PNF iii, 345).
ràith 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. ràithe. 'Common bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, fern'. Related to G raineach. OG raith, with the same meaning.
raon 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. raoin. 'Field, plain, upland field, green, mossy plain', but also 'road' (Dwelly).
ras 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. rais. 'Shrub, underwood'.
ràth 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. ràith. 'Fortress, artificial mound', but also 'village, royal seat' inter alia.
raun 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
var. rone, etc., 'rowan tree, mountain ash'.
raw 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A row of houses', or perhaps some other row in the landscape.
ree 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A sheep-fold', or enclosure for other animals.
reesk 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
''Moor, marshy ground, ground covered with natural grass, coarse grasses or rushes on marshy ground'. A loan-word from G riasg.
reid 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Red'; it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between Scots reid ‘red’ and Scots rede or reid ‘reed’.
reith 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. reithe, plur. reitheachan. 'A ram, tup'.
ri 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Pr
'Against, facing towards' and associated relationships.
riabhach 7 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'brindled, striped, variegated', also 'greyish, swarthy, drab, brown'. OG riabhach 'greyish, indefinite dusky hue', but probably originally 'streaked, striped' (DIL).
riarach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. riaraich. 'A servitor'.
riasg 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. réisg. 'Moor, fen, marsh', also refers to the kinds of plants associated with those areas - 'coarse mountain grass, bog-cotton, peat-moss' and 'land that cannot be ploughed or dug on account of the dirk-grass it contains'
rig 26 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A ridge, long narrow hill or strip of land’ (SND); a 'strip of ploughed land raised in the middle and sloping gradually to a furrow on either side, in the pre-agrarian revolution system of agriculture, usu. bounded by patches of uncultivated grazing ground' (SND).
rig 1 historical form54 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A ridge of land; a strip of arable'. Also Scots; see Scots rig for more details.
rinn 9 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. rinne. 'Tapering point, point, promontory, tail, tip'.
rone 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'a thicket of brushwood, thorns, etc.; a patch of dense stunted woodland' (CSD).
ros 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. rois, ‘promontory, isthmus, peninsula’ (Dwelly). OG ‘a wood, frequently of a wooded height or of a promontory on shore of a lake or river; common in place-names, either alone or followed by a genitive’ (DIL). It would appear, however, to be used in Scottish place-names almost exclusively to mean ‘promontory, headland’. It is cognate with Welsh rhos ‘promontory, moor’.
ross 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Headland, promontory'. A hypothetical loan-word into Scots from Gaelic ros, same meaning.
rotach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
A word with a range of meanings, including 'untidy, dirty', and 'thick, fat, lumpy'. But consider also OG rota 'bog, marsh, bog-water, bog-stuff', which might have produced an (unattested) adjectival form *rotach.
rowan 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Rowan tree', also Sc. rowan, roan, rone etc.
ruadh 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'red, reddish brown'. It may appear before the noun it qualifies, as in ruadh-bhiast 'moor fowl', ruadh-thuil 'flood reddened by peat', radh-chailc 'red ochre'.
ruid 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A small piece of enclosed ground, often belonging to a burgh and rented or feued'.
sac 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. saic. 'Sack, bag; burden, load; horse-load, cart-load' (Dwelly)
sagart 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sagairt, pl. sagairtean. 'Priest'.
sail 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. saile; pl. sailean. 'A willow tree'. This is recorded by Dwelly as obsolete, and the normal word for 'willow' in modern Gaelic is saileach. OG sail 'willow' (also the name of the 'S' or fourth letter of the ogham alphabet).
saint 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Saint'. Placed before a personal name it indicates the holiness of the person, usually one whose holiness was recognised by the Church (though not always). It may be used ironically too, or in humour. See St Michaels LEU, Fife.
sanct 1 historical form1 place-name
Language: S (Sc)
'Saint, holy'. May function as an adjective or a noun, and even effectively as part of a personal name. Also SSE sanct, saint.
sauch 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Also saugh. 'Willow tree, willow wood', Salix, with which Latin word sauch/saugh is of course cognate.
scabbed 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Bare, shallow, stony (land)'. cf. Sc scabbert, with this meaning.
scaur 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
The SND under the head-word scaur gives the following variants: scar(re), skarre; scare, skair, skare, sker(r), skear (Dmf. 1812 W. Singer Agric. Dmf. 539); skir, skyr (Sc. 1887 Jam.)’, defining it as: ‘a sheer rock, crag, precipice, cliff, a steep hill from which the soil has been washed away’.
scaur 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'steep hill, sheer rock, precipice', also Sc scaur with the same meaning.
scír 1 place-name
Language: S (OE), Part of Speech: N
'A shire, a district of lordship' inter alia. See Bosworth-Toller for more wide-ranging discussion s.v. scír.
score 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Score, scratch, groove varved into a surface'.
scroggy 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Covered in scrogs', i.e. in stunted bushy growth or trees, brushwood, undergrowth etc.
seabhag 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. seabhaig, pl. seabhagan. 'Peregrine falcon'
seallach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'seeing, viewing' (this word now obsolete, according to Dwelly).
sealladh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. seallaidh. 'Sight, spectacle, view'.
seamrag 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. seamraig. 'Shamrock, clover, trefoil'.
seangan 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'An ant', and among other things ,'small yellow clover or lesser trefoil (Trefolium dubium), a form of clover.
searrach 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen sing. searraich, 'foal, ,colt'.
seàrradh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. seàrraidh, 'act of cutting, hacking, reaping, slaughtering'.
seasgach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. seasgaich. In place-names probably 'reedy place', but also means 'cows giving no milk, barren cattle, bachelor, dry cow' (Dwelly). For seasgach as 'reedy place', compare with seasgan 'moorish ground, fenny country', OG seiscenn or sescan 'unproductive ground, marsh, swamp, bog' (DIL).
seat 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A seat', usually a landsdcape feature which bears some relationship to a chair, or a place where a person or people might sit.
seg 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Also Sc seg. 'sedge, the yellow flag iris'.
seileach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. seilich, pl. seilichean. 'Willow, willow copse, place where willows grow' (Dwelly). c.f. OG sailech 'willow'. Modern Gaelic has a variant form, sailleach, saillich.
seuntas 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. seuntais. 'A charm, enchantment, state of being enchanted', also 'concealment'.
sgaileach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'shadowy, shady, shaded' - the most likely meanings in a place-name context, but also 'affording a shade or covering, veiled, ghostlike, spectral, full of ghosts' (Dwelly), all associated in one way or another with G sgail 'shade, shadow, veil covering, ghost'.
sgeallach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'abounding in wild mustard (sgeallag)'
sgeith 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: V
present participle a' sgeith, 'spreading, overflowing'
sgeulaiche 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Story-teller'. Watson (1926, 410) renders the gen. sing. sgéalaighe.
sgileadh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sgileaidh. 'Winnowing, shelling corn', or 'the corn after husks have been ground off'.
sgitheach 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sgitheich, 'whitethorn, hawthorn' (Crataegus monogyna), also 'hawthorn thicket'.
sgitheag 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. sgitheig. 'A thorn, stalk or prickle of hawthorn; diminutive hawthorn tree'.
sguab 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sguaib, 'broom sheaf of corn'. OG scúap 'broom, bundle of flax, corn or straw'.
shank 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A leg', and therefore in landscape terms 'downward spur or slope of a hill'; also Scots (CSD).
shaw 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A small wood; copse; grove, thicket’ (DOST; also schaw(e)). From OE sceaga, scaga m., pl. sceagan, ‘a small wood, a copse, a strip of undergrowth or wood’ (Smith 1956 under sceaga). It can appear in English place-names as Shaw and Shay (for which see also Higham 1989 [‘shay names – a need for reappraisal?’, Nomina 12, 89-104)].
It can also mean 'bank or slope of ground' in later Scots (SND).
shiel 3 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
Also spelled sheil (with shiel the head-word in Concise Scots Dictionary); a shieling or shiel is defined by SND as: ‘A hut or rude shelter, a temporary house of stones, sods, etc., esp. one built for the accommodation of shepherds and dairy maids in the higher or more remote areas used as summer grazing ground for sheep and cattle’. In *Samsonshiels CHK they are translated into Latin as logis (dative plural), as in Logis Samsonis in the phrase 'a meadow in the shielings of Samson' (unum pratum in Logis Samsonis) c.1250 x c.1290 Dryburgh Liber no. 183; while Samson himself is referred to as Samsonis de Logis ('Samson of the Shiels') c.1220 x 1229 (Dryburgh Liber no. 176). See under Shielfield LAU for more details). They are also Latinised as scalingas (feminine accusative plural) (e.g. 1165 x 1170 Kelso Liber ii no. 321).
shiel 15 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A shieling; a bothy, temporary dwellings associated with summer grazing'. Also Sc.
shilling 1 historical form1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'shilling', 12 pennies, one twentieth of a pound.
shin 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A shin', also Sc shin, 'a ridge, steep face, projecting part of a piece of high ground' (CSD). A body-part used metaphorically of landsdcape.
shot, schot 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A piece of ground, especially one cropped rotationally; a smallholding' la16- (CSD2). As noted in DOST, s.v. s(c)hot, "In our records only in south eastern Scotland, south of the Forth". This supports a derivation from OE scēot 'corner of land' suggested by CSD2, despite the gap of more than three centuries between attestations.
shoulder 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Shoulder', one of the many body-parts which give their name to relief-features.
side 15 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A side', e.g. used of a hill-side, or of land beside a feature such as a stream, moor, bog, road etc.
side 6 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A hill-side; side'; the latter usually referring to land or settlement beside a feature which forms the specific element of a compound name, as in Burnside, Gateside etc.
sight 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'sight', probably in the sense of 'view', applied to hills or places from which there is a good or expansive view. 'Sighthill' is a common place-name containing this element in Scotland, but in BMC we have Sight Knowe.
sionn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Foxglove', but also 'light, brightness, lurid light', or 'region of lurid light'. The mundane foxglove is probably the most likely explanation in place-names. Dwelly gives siunn as a variant spelling.
sionnach 3 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sionnaich. 'Fox'.
sìth 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. sìthe. 'The mound of the fairy folk, the underground world of fairy folk'. OG síd 'a fairy hill or mound'. Sometimes later it came to mean 'the fairies' themselves, though they were technically the áes side 'the people of the underworld'.
sithean 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sithein. 'A little hill, fairy hill'.
sliabh 4 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. slèibhe, pl. sleibhtean. OG slíab. 'Mountain, mountain range, moor, moorland'. In place-names, especially in Galloway it often refers not so much to the mountainous aspect of a place so much as to its function as moorland grazing, denoting the function of the sliabh in the agricultural economy.
snab 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A projection of rock, a steep short slope, the brow of a rugged ascent' (SND).
solus 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. soluis. 'Light'. It is also used as an adjective (in Arran for example) meaning 'bright, clear, light-coloured, white' (Dwelly).
soum 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'The unit of pasturage which will support a fixed number of livestock' or 'the number of livestock that can be supported by a soum' (CSD). Also sum, etc.
sour 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Severe, harsh, bitter' (in relation to weather, and perhaps in place-names, to weather-related conditions at the site) (DOST).
souter 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
' A shoemaker, a cobbler'. it is most famously applied to the Souters, 'the two hills enclosing the entrance to the Cromarty Firth on the north and south, and resembling cobblers bent over their work. Cf. The Cobbler in Argyll' (SND). However, the BWK Souter is a vertical rock-stack, perhaps reminiscent of a shoemaker's needle.
Souter 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
Black first records the name in Dumfries in 1214 (1954, 738), but it is widespread in Scotland.
spring 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'spring', the season between winter and summer.
srath 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sratha. 'A broad (river-) valley', usually anglicised as Strath in place-names.
sròn 9 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. sròine. 'A nose' and thus by extension 'promontory, headland, point of land, a point running from a mountain to a srath (Dwelly), ridge of a hill'. According to OS surveyors the word was borrowed 'into the lowland dialect' (presumably Scots) (OS1/20/38/7), so the possibility of Stroan-names being formed in Scots should not be excluded.
stair 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. staire. 'Stepping-stones, path over a bog, crossing'.
standing stone 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Standing stone', usually referring to a conspicuous pillar-like stone, usually (or at least often) a pre-historic monument.
stang 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. staing. 'A pool, standing water', also 'ditch, trench'.
stell 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Also Sc stell. Among other meanings, 'an open enclosure of dry-stane walling used as a shelter for sheep on a hillside' (CSD).
steps 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'steps, stepping stones'. May be incorporated in singular form into other place-names such as Stepend. Also SSE.
stile 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A sequence of steps crossing a wall or fence'.
stob 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. stuib; pl. stoban 'Stake, pointed thing, prickle, thorn, the stump of anything broken or cut'.
stoban 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. stobain. 'Little stump'.
strand 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
A little stream, artificial waterchannel'. Also SSE strand.
strand 31 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A little stream, artificial waterchannel'. Also Sc strand (CSD).
strife 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Dispute, conflict, stfife'. This may reflect a tradition that the place named with this element had once been the subject of legal dispute.
sùbh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. sùibh , 'berry, raspberry'
suidhe 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. suidhe. 'A seat, a sitting down'.
sunk 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Sc sunk 'a turf seat made of layers of sods'. Also SSE.
Swain 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
Also spelt Sweyn. Old English Swegen.
swire 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A hollow or declivity between hills, a neck' (CSD). Also appears as sware.
syke 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A small stream', often referring to one in marshy ground, a ditch draining such. Also Sc sike or syke.
taigh 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. taighe (also tigh, gen. sing. tighe). 'A house, dwelling'.
talla 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. tallachan; pl. tallaichean ‘A hall, house, court, rock’. It is a loan-word from English hall.
tamhnach 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
gen. sing. tamhnaich. This word is not attested in modern Gaelic dictionaries (Dwellly, Watson), but Watson (1926) does discuss it. It derives from OG tamnach 'a green place, a clearing', and means much the same thing.
tarsainn 5 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'that crosses, transverse, lying athwart', but possibly also 'related to a crossing place'. Note also G tarsainn as an adverb and preposition, 'across, transversely, from side to side etc.' (Dwelly). Formerly commonly spelt tarsuinn. OG tarsainne, an adjective, 'opposing, fronting'; also OG tarsna, as a noun, 'cross-beam, width, breath', and used apparently adverbially in dat. sing. 'across, from side to side, diametrically' (DIL).
teanga 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. teangaidh. 'Tongue'.
temple 1 historical form1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Temple', associated with the Knights Templar, a military order which was suppressed by the Church and State in the early thirteenth century.
thorn 7 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Thorn tree' or 'thorn'. This might refer to either blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) or whitethorn/hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna).
thorny 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Covered in thorn trees' (whitethorn or blackthorn).
thorny 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Filled with or composed of thorn trees or bushes' (DOST).
tiomchioll 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N
'going around, making a circuit', may be in place-names a reference to the practice of hunters surrounding their driven quarry. The word was loaned into Scots as tinchel (also teinchil, tinchal, tainchel etc.) 'a ring of hunters who surround a chosen area and gradually close in to entrap any quarry, especially deer, found in the circle; and ambush of deer' (CSD).
Note, however, that the origin of the word OG timchell 'going around' could refer to this kind of surrounding activity, but could also mean 'a circumference, a boundary', in which sense it might also hvae been used in place-names.
tional 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'a gathering, assembly, convocation'.
tìr 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
[feminine in the north, according to Dwelly], gen. sing. tìre. 'Land'.
toll 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
'perforated, holed, pierced', and hence 'having holes'. Not attested in modern dictionaries, but see OG toll as an adjective with this meaning (DIL).
toll 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. tuill, pl. tuill or tollan, 'hole, hollow, crevice'. cf. OG toll with the same range of meanings, but also 'buttock' or 'rump'.
toll 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
‘Toll, checkpoint on a turnpike road where tolls were collected’ (CSD).
tollach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: Aj
An adjectival form from toll 'hole, hollow, cavity, crevice'. Thus, used nominally, 'hole-place'.
tom 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. tuim. 'Round hill, knoll, green eminence'.
tòn 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. tòine. 'Arse, backside, anus'.
tongue 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
‘a narrow strip of land; a tongue-shaped piece of land'.
tor 6 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
A rocky pinnacle or steep conical hill. See G tòrr.
tòrr 9 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. torra. 'Steep or conical hill or hillock', or 'heap, mound, pile'.
toun 4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
Also Sc toun. 'A farm, ferm-toun, settlement', and also of course, in the modern use 'a town'.
townhead 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'The top end of a fermtoun or a town, a place above or at the upper end of a fermtoun or settlement'.
tràigh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
gen. sing. tràgha(d) or tràighe. 'Sea shore, the beach exposed at low tide, shore or a lake or river'.
treabh 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. treibh. 'Farm, village'. But Watson (1926, 357) rather casts doubt on such a suggestion: ‘The Irish cognate treb, treabh, means ‘place of abode, home, region, family.’ [But] in Sc. Gaelic treabh is used only as a verb, ‘to plough’; treabhar means houses collectively, especially farm-buildings [it is used freely in the Gaelic of Easter Ross, but I have never met an Islesman who knew the term]: the uninhabited and untilled waste is dìthreabh, ‘wilderness.’’ This renders a Gaelic explanation of Scottish place-names somewhat unlikely, unless the Irish nominal use of the word perhaps was in use in medieval Scotland but has been lost from modern Scottish Gaelic.
tree 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A tree; wood or timber; a rod or stick'.
trev 4 place-names
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'A farm; a settlement'; compare Welsh tref. See also BLITON under *treβ.
tros 2 place-names
Language: S (Br), Part of Speech: Aj
'across, athwart, running cross-wise'. cf modern Welsh traws.
trostan 2 place-names
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. trostain. Now obsolete (Dwelly), 'pillar, post'. But OG trostán 'beam', so perhaps capable of a horizontal sense as well as the more vertical senses of 'pillar' and 'post'.
McKay (2007, 142) offers the possibility that Irish trostán derives from Latin trostrum 'crossbeam'.
troup 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
var. tripe, tryp etc. 'A herd or flock of animals' (DOST).
tuath 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender F
'North, northern' (invariable).
tuitear 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
'Tutor, governor, executor, preceptor'.
tulach 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. tulaich. 'Small hill, hillock, mound, knoll, low smooth hill or ridge' etc.
tùr 1 place-name
Language: S (G), Part of Speech: N, Gender M
gen. sing. tùir . 'Tower, fort, turret' etc.
twentie 1 historical form
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Nu
'Twenty', also twenty, twinty, twantie, twonty, towntie etc.
twenty-schilling 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Twenty shillings', i.e. one pound, a valuation of land.
upper 3 historical forms25 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Upper, higher-lying'; often the equivalent of Scots over.
view 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
A common element in house-names coined over the past two hundred years or so. Its use is more complex than first appears. As a general rule, if it combines with the name of an object (or direction) which can be seen well from the site, that object (or direction) comes first in the name as a kind of specific element, while view comes second, e.g. Bayview, Seaview etc. Alternatively, view can come in first position to indicate a place from which there is a good view, such as The Viewfield and Viewbank. For more discussion on this element, see Place-Names of Fife vol. 5, Elements Glossary under view.
It can also refer to a view enjoyed by an individual, as in Scott's View MER.
waa 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A ruined building', usually in plural waas. Also Sc.
waas 5 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'Roofless building, ruins'. A plural form of Sc wa (waa, wae, wa'). Also 'hypercorrected' to walls.
wall-ee 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A spring, well; a place in a bog from which a spring rises' (CSD).
Wallace 1 place-name
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P
A surname. In a number of Scottish place-names the surname concerned refers to William Wallace (d. 1305), prominent figure in the first Scottish war of independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
wallie 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Large, imposing', also 'fine, pleasant, big and strong' etc. (CSD).
ward 5 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'An enclosed piece of land, chiefly for pasture', also Sc.
water 7 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'Water', usually in the sense of 'river'.
waulker 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'One who 'fulls' cloth, soaking, pressing and beating it to increase its density'.
waulker 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A fuller of cloth' (also Sc waulker or waulkster), one who makes cloth thick and (partially) felted by soaking, beating, shrinking.
weary 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Av
'wearily', used in humorous place-names.
weil 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A deep pool, eddy or whirlpoo', also spelled weel.
wether 3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A wether; a castrated ram'. See also Scots wedder.
whinny 1 place-name
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: Aj
'Covered with whins or gorse'. This adjective from whin is only recorded in place-names, according to DOST under whinnie, the one example given being from Retours (Edinburghshire) no. 1029 from the year 1652: 'That peice of the lands of Coits called Whinnie-Know'.
whinny 4 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'Covered in, abounding in, whin or gorse' (Ulex europaeus).
white 51 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: Aj
'White', with various connotations, for which see Place-Names of Fife 5, Elements Glossary s.v.
widow 2 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A widow', the surviving party of a marriage whose husband has died.
Willie 2 place-names
Language: S (pn), Part of Speech: P, Gender M
A hypocoristic form of the male forename William.
wood 53 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A wood'. For names containing the Scots equivalent, see under wuid. Wood-names clearly coined after c.1750, especially those referring to plantings on the policies of big houses, can be assumed to be SSE rather than Scots.
wright 1 place-name
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'A wright, craftsman'. An occupational term, which gave rise to the family name Wright.
wuid 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A wood' (also wod, wood etc.). It is often difficult to know whether a name referring to a wood was coined in Scots or SSE, so all occurrences of this word are included under Scots wuid. Wood-names clearly coined after c.1750, especially those referring to plantings on the policies of big houses, can be assumed to be SSE rather than Scots.
yard 1 historical form3 place-names
Language: S (SSE), Part of Speech: N
'a garden, enclosure'. Also Sc yaird.
yett 2 place-names
Language: S (Sc), Part of Speech: N
'A gate, door, passage', but also by extension 'a natural pass between hills' (CSD).
Place-name data
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