LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 23.JUL.2001 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 23.JUL.2001 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Ted Harding <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk> wrote regarding a component in
some placenames in his new home in England's "deepest East Anglian
Fenland":

> Near Wisbech is a cluster of settlements of which major ones are
> Tydd St Mary and Tydd St Giles (by no means big, though). Others
> (really tiny) are Tydd Gote and Four Gotes.
>
> My question is: "What's a Gote?"
>
> And then, possibly, "Whence the word?"
>
> The sense of one piece of oldish text I've come across suggests it
> may be a sluice (? sluice Gate->Gote ?).
>
> An old map (Blaeu, 1648) shows "Tydgoate" and "The 4 Goats"
> (NB spelling verified).
>
> Another suggestion is a [drainage?] channel (cf. River Goyt in
> Derbyshire/Cheshire which "Concise Oxford Dictionary of English
> Placenames" attibutes to "Welsh 'gwyth' `channel, conduit`, identical
> with Old Cornish 'guid' `a vein`, Middle Breton 'goeth' `a brook`.)

I replied (after what seems to be a wrong lead):

> Might these "gotes" in your area have anything to do with Westerlauwers
> Frisian _goate_ ~ _goatte_ 'gutter'?  (Cf. _goat_ ~ _goate_ 'downpour')
> There's your connection with water and sluices perhaps.  Am I getting
warm?

What a difference umlauting can make!  Only after I sent off my previous
message it dawned on me that there _is_ a Low Saxon (Low German, North
Saxon dialect) cognate: _Göte_ ['g9:te] ~ _Gööt_ [g9:t] (_geute_ ~ _geut_
in Dutch-based orthography [< Middle LS _gote_ < *_gôta_]) 'gutter',
'drain', 'ditch', 'downpour' (feminine, pl. _Göten_ ['g9:t=n]; cf. _geiten_
['gEIt=n] 'to pour'; cf. Dutch _goot_ < _gote_ 'gutter', etc., _gieten_ 'to
pour'; cf. German _Gosse_ 'gutter', etc., _gießen_ 'to pour).

This seems to connect nicely with the idea of "drainage channel."

I suppose this would be what in some Modern-Low-Saxon-speaking areas is
called _Siel_ [zi:l] (neuter, pl. _Sielen_ [zi:%ln]) 'drainage
channel/ditch (in fenland or through a pipe in a dike)', 'sluice', commonly
used in place names; derivations: _Sieltog_ ['zi:ltOx] 'main drainage
channel', _Sielacht_ ['zi:l?axt] 'community sharing an irrigation and
drainage channel system', 'organization of fenland inhabitants'.  (Cf.
German _Siel_ 'sluice', 'sewer')

'Large drainage channel' is also the meaning of _Wedder_ ['vEd3] (feminine,
pl. _Weddern_), which also occurs in place names.

Another word for 'drainage channel', mostly used in the dialects of the
fenland regions of Ollenborg/Oldenburg and Eastern Friesland (on the
eastern side near the northern end of the Netherlands-German border), is
_Sloot_ ~ _Slood_ [sloUt] (feminine, pl. _Sloden_ ['sloUd=n]); cf. _sluten_
['slu:t=n] 'to lock', 'to close', 'to shut'; cf. Westerlauwers Frisian
_sleat_ 'ditch', cf. _slute_ 'to lock', 'to close, 'to shut''.  Compare
English "slough" (< Old English _slôh_ ~ _slô(g)_) 'quagmire', 'miry
place', which here in the Pacific Northwest of America seems to mean
something like 'water channel (with muddy banks)', judging by the names and
looks of the local sloughs.  (According to the Oxford Dictionary, the
origin of this word is unclear.)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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