In "The landscape of place-names", pp 196-7, Margaret Gelling discusses
OE nęss and ON nes. But Bosworth and Toller tell us that as well as
the masculine nęss, OE had a feminine nęsse with the same meaning.
My question is: does the latter form occur in English place-names?
For example, nearly all the old forms for Naze (Essex) show a final
e or a. The feminine seems to occur in the Netherlands in
Terneuzen (fem. dat. 'at the ness'), unless I misunderstand and this is
actually a plural.
Incidentally, I could not clarify the exact relation of 'ness' to 'nose' by
reference to the standard books, but the m./f. doublets recur for example
in Latin nasus/naris and Sanskrit nasa/na:sa: (a:=long a). Perhaps the
feminine originally meant 'nostril', as the French 'narine' would suggest?
Keith
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