Social:Torpenhow Hill
Torpenhow Hill (locally /trəˈpɛnə/, trə-PEN-ə) is an alleged hill near the village of Torpenhow in Cumbria, England, a name that is tautological. According to an analysis by linguist Darryl Francis and locals, there is no landform formally known as Torpenhow Hill there, either officially or locally,[1] which would make the term an example of a ghost word.
A.D. Mills in his Dictionary of English Place-Names interprets the name as "Ridge of the hill with a rocky peak", giving its etymology as Old English torr, Celtic *penn, and Old English hoh.[2]
In 1688, Thomas Denton stated that Torpenhow Hall and church stand on a 'rising topped hill', which he assumed might have been the source of the name of the village.[3][4] Denton apparently exaggerated the example to a "Torpenhow Hill", which would quadruple the "hill" element, but the existence of a toponym "Torpenhow Hill" is not substantiated.[5]
In 1884, G.L. Fenton proposed the name as an example of "quadruple redundancy" in tautological placename etymologies, i.e. that all four elements of the name might mean "hill".[6] It was used as a convenient example for the nature of loanword adoption by Thomas Comber in c. 1880.[7]
See also
- List of tautological place names
- Cumbrian toponymy
References
- ↑ Francis, Darryl (2003). "The Debunking of Torpenhow Hill". Word Ways 36 (1): 6–8. http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4733&context=wordways.
- ↑ Mills, A. D. (1993). A Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-19-283131-6.
- ↑ English Place Name Society, 1950, The Place-names of Cumberland, p. 326
- ↑ Thomas Denton: A Perambulation of Cumberland, 1687-8, including descriptions of Westmorland, the Isle of Man and Ireland. [page needed]
- ↑ Francis, Darryl (2003). "The Debunking of Torpenhow Hill". Word Ways 36 (1): 6–8. http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4733&context=wordways.
- ↑ Fenton, G. L. (12 July 1884). "Torpenhow". Notes and Queries. 6th Series 10 (237): 25–26.
- ↑ "the name thus meaning in reality hill-hill-hill-hill. Fortunately the Normans let it remain, and we are spared from having to call the place 'Torpenhow hill-mount'." Thomas Comber, "The Origin of the English Names of Plants", The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Volume 15 (1904), p. 616.
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