The linguistic origin of these descriptive syllables, when found as
suffixes to the names of places, is a question of some interest to the
antiquary and ethnologist; and, as to the former of them, has, on that
account, fitly enough been made the subject of occasional discussion in the
pages of "N. & Q." The _-by_, as your pages evince (Vol. vii., p. 536.), is
implicitly relied upon by Mr. Worsaae and his disciples, in support of the
Danish theory of that eminent northern scholar; and that too, as it
appears, without any very minute regard to the etymology and meaning of the
former syllabic divisions of proper names so characterised. If only the
designation of a locality end with _-by_, evidence sufficient is given,
that it owes its paternity specially to the Danes alone, of all the
Scandinavian tribes who obtained a permanent footing on our shores. The
same is the case with respect to the termination _-ness_, and its
orthographic varieties. As with the Ashbys, Newbys, and Kirbys of our
several counties, so (_inter alia_) with the Hackness of Yorkshire, the
Longness of Man, the Bowness of Westmoreland, and the Foulness of Essex.
All have the Danish mark upon them; and all, therefore, possess a Danish
original, and bear witness of a Danish location.
With regard to the _-by_, I have already, in these pages, taken occasion to
suggest a doubt whether, in that particular instance, the Worsaaen theory
be not as fallacious as it is dogmatical. And, adopting the same method
with the _-ness_, I think it will be evident, on examination of the
following list of almost identical forms of the expression, that, as to
this point also, no argument can be founded upon it, one way or the other,
beyond the fact of its derivation from some of the Scandinavian tribes who,
in the fifth and succeeding centuries, established themselves on our
shores: if, indeed, I do not, even with this enlarged extension, assign to
the presence of the term in our topography a too restricted application.
I have a list now before me of 521 places with this suffix, distributed
over twenty-five counties. It does not pretend to be complete; but as it
offers a more extended view of the question than in Vol. ix., p. 136., I
subjoin the results:
Yorkshire 173
Lincolnshire 163
Leicestershire 49
Norfolk 22
Cumberland 21
Westmoreland 18
Northamptonshire 17
Lancashire 14
Nottinghamshire 14
Suffolk and Derbyshire, 5 each 10
Durham and Warwickshire, 3 each 6
Essex and Isle of Man, 2 each 4
Cardiganshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Kent, Monmouthshire,
Northumberland, Pembrokeshire, Salop, and Wiltshire, 1 each 10
---
521
===
Our termination _-ness_, then, is the old northern or Icelandic _nes_, the
parent of the Dan. _næs_, and the Ang.-Sax. _nese_ and _næs_, signifying "a
neck of land, or promontory." From this _nes_ came, naturally enough, the
old northern _naos_ or _nös_, whence the Dan. _næse_, the Germ. _nase_; the
Ang.-Sax. _nase_, _næse_, _nose_; the Norman-Fr. _naz_, and Su.-Goth.
_naese_ (in Al. and Sansc. _nasa_, and in Gall. _nes_); the Latin _nasus_,
and Eng. _nose_, or _nase_ as it is spelt by Gower in his _Conf. Am._ b.
v., "Both at mouth and at _nase_." Closely akin to the same word, and
probably derived from an identical source, is the old northern _nef_,
whence were formed the Vulg.-Isl. _nebbi_, the Dan. _neb_, and the
Ang.-Sax. _nebbe_ and _neb_ (in Pers. _anef_; in C. Tscherh. _ep_, in Curd.
_defin_), the beak or bill, the _neb_ or _nib_ of a bird; and also used of
the prominent feature of the human face divine, to which the term is
applied by Shakspeare and Bacon, as it is occasionally at the present day
by the older inhabitants of the Yorkshire dales.
Thus have we the origin of our _nase_, _-nese_, _-ness_, _-nib_, _-nab_,
&c., which are found in the composition of many of our local proper names;
but, after looking over the foregoing paragraph, who can tell whether these
forms were transported to our shores in a Saxon, Jutish, Anglic, or Danish
bark?