Bibliography
See also Watson 'Survey' from CPNS
(from Newsletter 5, Autumn 1998)
THE TRUMPETERS OF BEMERSYDE:
AN OLD ENGLISH PLACE-NAME ELEMENT RECONSIDERED
(N.B. the html font refused to recognise certain accents in the original text, therefore in the following "bemere" should always be read with a flat first "e", "side" with flat "i", "beam", "beme" and "beo" all with flat "e", and "rare-dum(b)la" with flat first "a")
Carole Hough, Glasgow: The place-name Bemersyde in Berwickshire is a compound of OE
bemere, generally taken to mean `trumpeter', and OE side `hillside' or `seat' (Johnston 1934 and
1940; Williamson 1942). This paper reconsiders the range of meaning of OE bemere in order to
illustrate the contribution that place-names make to our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon vocabulary
and the history of the language.
OE bemere (West Saxon form býmere) also occurs as the first element of the English place-names
Bemerhills, Bemerton and Bemerehill in Wiltshire, Bemersley in Staffordshire, and Bemerherste in
Middlesex, and in a Wiltshire boundary marker to bymera cumbe. These are traditionally
interpreted as `hill of the trumpeters', `farm of the trumpeters', `clearing of the trumpeter', and
`valley of the trumpeters'. It would appear from this evidence that the trumpet was a popular
instrument in Anglo-Saxon times, generally played out of doors. However, other sources (history,
literature and archaeology) present a weight of negative evidence that makes it unlikely that these
place-names refer to trumpeters in a literal sense.
As in Modern English, many Old English words were polysemous, developing extended or
alternative meanings in different contexts. Whereas one meaning may be represented in literary
sources, another is often preserved in toponyms. One area of vocabulary represented more fully in
the place-name corpus than in the extant literature is that of the common names given to birds and
animals in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. I suggest that OE bemere should be understood in a
transferred sense to designate a type of bird with a trumpet-like voice. Since bird-names often
combine with topographical generics, the interpretation is plausible in the place-name contexts.
The call of the male bittern is known in Modern English as a boom. The same word is used of the
buzzing of bees or beetles, but its etymology is unknown. I suggest that it may descend from the
same origins as the homonym boom `a long spar', which is related to OE beam `wood' as well as
to cognates in other Germanic languages. OE beme `trumpet' is also etymologically related to OE
bam, used in the sense of `something made of wood, a wooden trumpet'. A link in the chain may
be provided by the use of the word beming to refer to the buzzing of bees in the work of the
early-sixteenth-century Scots poet Douglas. There is clearly a connection between this and the use
of bum, the Scottish equivalent of boom, to refer to the hum of bees in present-day usage. I
suggest that the use of the word beming in Douglas' writing makes it possible to trace the
derivation of boom or bum back to OE beme `trumpet'.
If my proposal of an etymological link with ModE boom is correct, OE bemere may represent
either a bird-name or an alternative word for a bee. Three of the place-name generics found in
combination with OE bemere also occur in combination with OE beo `bee' in English place-names,
while other references to vallies frequented by bees occur in Beeslack, Midlothian, and Beecraigs,
West Lothian (MacDonald 1941). Bemerton and Bemersyde might designate places noted for the
production of honey, an interpretation supported by comparison with the Berwickshire Milchesid
(1189), explained by Williamson (1942) as `hillside of rich pasture, which produced a good yield
of milk'.
However, I think it more likely that OE bemere refers to a type of bird. OE beo is well
represented both in place-names and in literature, so there is no apparent reason for an alternative
word for a bee to be used in toponyms. The term rare-dum(b)la `bittern', on the other hand, is
recorded only rarely in Old or Middle English, mostly in glossaries, and occurs neither in English
nor in Scottish place-names. A different name may therefore be postulated for demotic use. A
useful research tool is A Thesaurus of Old English (Roberts and Kay, 1995), where the grouping
of the material by subject makes it possible to identify gaps in the known vocabulary of Old
English. There are many gaps in the areas of bird- and animal-names, reflecting a bias in literary
sources towards unusual and exotic creatures rather than farmyard animals and indigenous fauna.
Most significantly, there is no common term for a bittern in the literary corpus of Old English. One
must have existed, and it is reasonable to turn to place-name evidence in an attempt to supply the
deficiency. The French loan-word bittern is not recorded in English before the fourteenth century,
and may have replaced an OE bemere, býmere, the etymon of ModE boomer, which is still in use
as an alternative name for the bittern (Jackson 1968). The place-name Bemersyde, with its English
cousins, may provide the link that enables this etymology to be established.
Note
A more detailed discussion of the English place-names referred to in this paper will appear in C.
Hough, `Place-name evidence for Old English bird-names', Journal of the English Place-Name
Society (forthcoming, 1998).
References
Craigie, W. A., A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue From the Twelfth Century to the End
of the Seventeenth (Chicago and London, 1937+).
Jackson, C. E., British Names of Birds (London, 1968).
Johnston, J. B., The Place-Names of Berwickshire (Edinburgh, 1940).
Johnston, J. B., Place-Names of Scotland, 3rd edn (London, 1934).
MacDonald, A., The Place-Names of West Lothian (Edinburgh, 1941).
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1989).
Roberts, J. and C. Kay with L. Grundy, A Thesaurus of Old English, 2 vols (London, 1995).
Williamson, M. G., The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border Counties, unpublished
PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1942.
Bibliography ( to see full bibliography, click here)
Johnston, J.B., 1940, The Place-Names of Berwickshire (The Place-Names of Scotland Series, No.1, published by the RSGS, Edinburgh).