In respect to the etymology of the name Bodmin, or Bodman, I have no
difficulty. I looke upon the word as Saxon-Kernawish, bode and man, or
bode-men in the plural, which may safely, and without a catachræsis,
be interpreted, the preacher-man, or men. That bode signifies priest,
or preacher, in the Cornish, the Gaelic, and other cognate tongues, I
confirm by the authority of Alfred, the Saxon grammarian, and of
Verstegan, from which is derived our modern Kernawish word for a
priest.
And this sense is preserved in the names of divers other churches
throughout the land; as in the hundred of Weston, Herefordshire, where
we find Boddenham Vicarage, bod-den-ham, preacher-man-dwelling, den
being in Kernawish synonymous with man.
[The remainder of Mr. Tonkin’s narrative agrees so nearly with that of
Mr. Hals as not to require its insertion.]