Now there is a little problem here, or perhaps more than one little problem.
In the first place, despite Carole Hough's pleading, it is by no means clear
that *pocca/*pohha means 'fallow deer'. Secondly, *pocca/*pohha would have
had a short /o/. I suspect that the Pukebroc name contains a 'goblin' word
and in Northants ON puki is not to be excluded.
I.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Briggs" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: [EPNL] Marrelsmoor
> Keith Briggs wrote:
>> John Briggs wrote:
>>>
>>> Presumably Purbrook ('puck brook') was the name of the stream
>>
>> In view of Carole Hough's *pohha/*pocca article, can we be so sure
>> this is 'puck brook' any more?
>> In fact Polebrook (Northants) is one of her examples, and we have
>>
>> Polebrook Pokebroc 1207
>> Purbrook Pokebroc 13th.
>>
>> Reference: C. Hough, 'Place-name evidence for an Anglo-Saxon animal
>> name: OE *pohha/*pocca "fallow deer"', Anglo-Saxon England 30 (2001),
>> 1-14.
>
> Oh, bugger! Mind you, I would be wary of an etymology with two asterisks
> :-)
>
> We don't have deer in these parts any more, but that doesn't mean
> anything. The spelling Pokebroc' is from the rubric of an early 13th
> century Southwick charter [III 219] (possibly 1213-1215), whereas the text
> has Adam de Pukebrok'. I don't know what to make of that, except that it
> suggests to me a 'pook' pronunciation. The same charter mentions
> Porteswalde, which is just assumed to be the wooded area north of
> Portsdown Hill. No sign of Marrelsmoor (or any other moor!) in the index,
> but Porteswalde isn't there either...
>
> John Briggs
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