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.

Coryates

Early-attested site in the Parish of Portisham

Historical Forms

  • on corf getes westran cotan, of ðam cotan 1024 Ilch(KCD741,S961)
  • le Corueyatis 1473 MinAcct
  • Corryatts 1698 SoDoNQ
  • Coryates 1811 OS

Etymology

Coryates (SY 629854) [ˈkɔrieits,'kɔriəts], Corfe Gate (or Coryates) 1939 Kelly, on corf getes westran cotan , of ðam cotan 1024Ilch (KCD 741, S 961), le Corueyatis 1473MinAcct , Corryatts 1698 SoDoNQ, Coryates 1811 OS, cf. Coryeats Pier 18WRO , Coryats mead 1859TA .The earliest spelling occurs in the Anglo-Saxon bounds of Portisham, 'to the more westerly cottages of *Corfget ', v. westerra , cote , where *Corfget represents *corf 'cutting, pass' with explanatory geat (gen. sg. -es ) which here has the same meaning, thus 'the gap called *Corf '. For the same combination, cf. Corf (es )geat 16, the lost f.n. Corryate (s ) in Long Bredy par. infra , on Corfʒet in Corscombe par. infra , and discussion in Tengstrand xxvii, 172. The preservation of the genitival inflection in the final el. of this compound name is remarkable, but it was no doubt taken to be a plural -s at an early date. In spite of the proximity of Corton, the pass referred to in Coryates would seem to be a different one; the road from Shilvinghampton passes between two hills just N of here, one of these being Corton Hill which lies between Corton and Coryates. Alternatively, the *corfget may have been a gap in an earthwork of some kind, cf. the discussion of the OE  boundary mark ealdan wale under f.ns. (b) infra . The identification with Coryates of the Corfes geat where King Edward the Martyr was murdered in 978, proposed by J. N. Clift in 1907 (DoNHAS 1547), is unlikely on formal and other grounds: the traditional identification of Corfes geat with Corfe Castle (v. 16) is almost certainly correct.