_Meaning of the Word "Elvan."_--Will any kind philologist come to the
aid of the geologists in ascertaining the meaning of this uncouth word?
In the current number of the _Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society_ (No. 29.) we read:
"Certain quartziferous porphyries which occur in the mining
districts of Cornwall as veins, partly in granite, partly in
clay-slate, have been long there known under the name of
'Elvans.' We have in vain sought for the origin of this term in
English writers. Henwood expressly says (_Trans. Geol. Soc. of
Cornwall_, vol. v.) that the etymology of the word is unknown. May
it not perhaps be derived from a place called 'Elvan?' Reuss says,
in his _Lehrbuch der Geognosie_, that porphyry occurs near Elvan
in Westmoreland."
On turning to Borlase (_Natural History of Cornwall_, p. 91.), I find
that he gives the derivation as follows:
"Quasi ab Hel-vaen, _i.e._ the stone generally found in brooks;
unless it be a corruption of An-von, which in Cornish signifies a
smith's anvil, and might fitly represent this very hard stone."
The term is a Cornish one, and applied to a crystalline rock usually
hard enough to strike fire readily on sharp friction; and may it not
have been derived from the Cornish word "_Elven_, a spark of fire,"
given in Borlase's vocabulary.