Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Little known Words from our Pagan past… Part 4
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Over the centuries, the ancient forests of England have been cleared away for farming and living space; but odd bits of woodland got left behind for a wide variety of reasons.
The words used to describe these are still in use today, although most people don't know what the words mean.
Over the years, a lot of these descriptive woodland names have been adopted as surnames, or family names by country people.
'Shaw', for instance, was a 'Wood' hanging onto the side of a steep hill; rather like a Ladies Shawl.
If it was a very dense wood with a lot of undergrowth, it was called a 'Greenshaw' and if it contained a lot of 'Stag-headed Oaks' it was referred to as an 'Oldshaw'. (Some oaks go bald in their old age, with lots of bare branches sticking out of their crown, like Deer Antlers).
A shaw full of big trees but little or no undergrowth, was called a 'Bradshaw'.
Large areas of forest were still called 'Forest' but the surname was altered slightly to 'Forrest' so that people didn't mumble it.
Small areas of woodland became a 'Wood' and a very popular surname.
'The Chippys', (survivors of the outlawed 'Elfin' tribes like us) took the name 'Wood' when surnames were forced upon us in 1742.
Like our name, it was a good way to disguise an old 'Pagan' name in a Christian society, and now, (like us), anybody with the name Wood, gets the nickname (nick=devil) of Chippy, whether or not they carry on the old woodworking skills of the original Chippys; who used to build our Elfin, ‘Hollow Hill’ Homes.
More to follow…
Over the centuries, the ancient forests of England have been cleared away for farming and living space; but odd bits of woodland got left behind for a wide variety of reasons.
The words used to describe these are still in use today, although most people don't know what the words mean.
Over the years, a lot of these descriptive woodland names have been adopted as surnames, or family names by country people.
'Shaw', for instance, was a 'Wood' hanging onto the side of a steep hill; rather like a Ladies Shawl.
If it was a very dense wood with a lot of undergrowth, it was called a 'Greenshaw' and if it contained a lot of 'Stag-headed Oaks' it was referred to as an 'Oldshaw'. (Some oaks go bald in their old age, with lots of bare branches sticking out of their crown, like Deer Antlers).
A shaw full of big trees but little or no undergrowth, was called a 'Bradshaw'.
Large areas of forest were still called 'Forest' but the surname was altered slightly to 'Forrest' so that people didn't mumble it.
Small areas of woodland became a 'Wood' and a very popular surname.
'The Chippys', (survivors of the outlawed 'Elfin' tribes like us) took the name 'Wood' when surnames were forced upon us in 1742.
Like our name, it was a good way to disguise an old 'Pagan' name in a Christian society, and now, (like us), anybody with the name Wood, gets the nickname (nick=devil) of Chippy, whether or not they carry on the old woodworking skills of the original Chippys; who used to build our Elfin, ‘Hollow Hill’ Homes.
More to follow…
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