and Graves, the latter being thus no more funereal than Tombs, from
Thomas (cf. Timbs from Timothy). But Greaves and Graves may also be
variants of the official Grieves (Chapter XIX), or may come from Mid.
Eng. graefe, a trench, quarry. Compounds are Hargreave (hare),
Redgrave, Stangrave, the two latter probably referring to an
excavation. From Mid. Eng, strope, a small wood, appear to come
Strode and Stroud, compound Bulstrode, while Struthers is the cognate
strother, marsh, still in dialect use. Weald and wold, the cognates
of Ger. Wald, were applied rather to wild country in general than to
land covered with trees. They are probably connected with wild.
Similarly the Late Lat. foresta, whence our forest, means only what is
outside, Lat, foris, the town jurisdiction. From the Mid. Eng. waeld
we have the names Weld and Weale, the latter with the not uncommon
loss of final -d. Scroggs (Scand.) and Scrubbs suggest their meaning
of brushwood. Scroggins, from its form, is a patronymic, and probably
represents Scoggins with intrusive _r_. This is perhaps from Scogin,
a name borne by a poet who was contemporary with Chaucer and by a
court-fool of the fifteenth century--
"The same Sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's head at
the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high." (2 Henry IV.,
iii. 2.)
With Scrubb of cloudy ammonia fame we may compare Wormwood Scrubbs.
Shrubb is the same word, and Shropshire is for Anglo-Sax. scrob-scire.
FOREST CLEARINGS
The two northern names for a clearing in the wood were Royd and
Thwaite (Scand.). The former is cognate with the second part of
Baireut and Wernigerode, and with the Ruetli, the small plateau on
which the Swiss patriots took their famous oath. It was so called--
"Weil dort die Waldung ausgerodet ward."
(SCHILLER, Wilhelm Tell.)
Among its compounds are Ackroyd (oak), Grindrod (green), Murgatroyd
(Margaret), Learoyd (lea), Ormerod, etc. We also find the name Rodd,
which may belong here or to Rudd (Chapter VII), and both these names
may also be for Rood, equivalent to Cross or Crouch (Chapter II), as
in Holyrood. Ridding is also related to Royd. Hacking may be a dim.
of Hack (Chapter VII), but we find also de le hacking, which suggests
a forest clearing.
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