In England phrasal pejorative field-names like Starve Lark, Break Back or Pick Pocket seem to be late medieval at best. I don't know what the position is in France, but this suggests a late date for the substitution: assuming that Gratttepanche actually is Braduspantium, which doesn't seem to be universally agreed.
Jeremy Harte
-----Original Message-----
From: The English Place-Name List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony Appleyard
Sent: 21 October 2013 15:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Name changes in change from Celtic to Latin
People have said that parts of lowland Britain went from Celtic-speaking to Latin-speaking before the Anglo-Saxons came.
Dauzat & Rostaing in their big etymological dictionary of French placenames wrote under entry 'Grateloup' that the names of Grattepanche (in Somme) and Gratepanche (a hamlet in Oise) came from French 'gratter' and 'panche' ("scrape" and "belly"), referring to effects of hunger caused by lack of food due to poor soil. And they say that Gratepanche in Oise was Julius Caesar's Braduspantium. But someone on this forum said that 'Braduspantium' is Gaulish Celtic for "place of judgement", a much more suitable name for a town. It seems that some time after the people in the area stopped speaking Gaulish, there was a familiarizing distortion by people who then spoke Late Latin or Old French.
French 'gratter' came from Franconian German, and French 'panche' came from Latin 'pandex'.
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