English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Cory

Early-attested site in the Parish of West Putford

Historical Forms

  • Curri 1219 Ass
  • Cory 1330,1333 SR 1339 Ass
  • Cory Mills 1723 Recov

Etymology

For parallels for this name cf. Ekwall RN 97s. n. Cory. All the places with which Ekwall deals can be clearly referred to rivers, but Cory is definitely not on a river but in a little hollow opening out from the valley of the Torridge.Ekwall explains Cory as a river-name containing perhaps a W  root ceu , 'hollow,' so that the term Cory might be used in the first instance of a valley and then of the stream flowing through it. For the river-name v. Corrie Brook supra 3. This explanation seems more likely than Blomé's attempt (152) to connect it with Celtic kuros , 'circle.' The semicircle of which he speaks here and in connexion with Coryton is very vague and shadowy.