Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Glantham 1086 DB

• Glandham 1086 ib

• Glentham 1086 DB eHy2 Gilb 1409 RAiv 1183–84 P 1188,1190 RAiv c1190 P 1191,1193,1194 CurR 1194 ChancR 1196 FF 1197 RAiv l12 Kirkst l12 RAiv 13 Cur c1200 Ass 1203 Cur 1203 OblR 1203,1204 P 1204 Cur 1205 P 1205,1206 FF 1206 Ch 1210 RAiv 1215 1291 c1220,1212

• Glentheim c1115 LS l12 Dane

• Glentaham 1163 And

• Glenteham 1185 Templar

• Glent'ham 1203 Cur

• Glenham 1195 P a1201 RAiii 1203 P

• Glentam 1539 Foster

• touthill 1669 CCLeases

• toothill 1721 Terrier

Etymology

Glentham is probably to be taken with Glentworth infra , some three miles away, the first el. of each having similar forms. Glentham, unlike Glentworth, has few early spellings with a medial -e -, though this is perhaps not surprising since a medial -e - would be more likely to survive before a following -w than before a following -h . Ekwall, DEPN s.n., suggests that the first el. of each is an OE  *glente 'a look-out place', which is topographically appropriate for Glentham, situated on a hill when approached from the north and from the west. Furthermore, a f.n. touthill 1669CCLeases and toothill 1721Terrier 'the look-out hill', v. tōt-hyll has been noted in the parish, though unfortunately its site is unknown. Hence, Glentham might mean 'the homestead, estate at a look-out place', v. hām . Such an explanation is, however, less obvious topographically for Glentworth. Glentworth, situated as it is at the foot of the cliff, represented by Glentworth Cliff Farm, along which runs the medieval trackway Middle Street, might well be describing some feature on the ridge overlooking the village. In this case Glentworth would mean 'the enclosure at a look-out place', v. worð .

Ekwall's explanation is not without etymological problems. In DEPN s.n. Glantlees , he takes his OE  *glente 'look-out hill' to be related to ME  glenten 'to shine, look, move quickly', Norw  gletta 'to peep, look, glimpse', German Glanz m. 'brilliance, brightness', glanzen 'to shine'.MED has glent , glossed as (a) 'a glance, look, glimpse'; (b) 'a beam of light; (c)? 'a glancing blow', and a verb glenten , which is unnecessarily assumed to be of Scand origin, as Dr Insley points out. He draws attention to relevant glosses in MED as (1c)? 'to bring (something) into sight or existence, reveal'; (3a) 'to look askance, look, glance'; (4) 'to shine, gleam, glitter; glisten, glint' and EDD glosses glent as (1) 'to shine', sparkle, gleam; to flash, twinkle'; (2) 'to glance, look, peep; to look askew; to squint'. In Old High German, there was an adj. glanz 'bright, shining' and there is a late OHG (c1000), MHG  glenzen 'to produce brightness, to shine'. The Indo-European root seems to be *ghlend (h )~ 'to shine, to look'. Smith EPN s.v. *glente includes the possibility that we are concerned with a bird of prey and compares “Dan  glente , Swed  glanta 'hawk, kite”, but Dr Insley points out that there are etymological and semantic problems here which rule out Smith's suggestion.

On the whole, Ekwall's etymology has much to recommend it, though there still remains the problem that the primary sense of the word-group to which glenten belongs lies in the field of 'brightness', brilliance, shining'. Perhaps *glent is a substantival derivative of a verb OE  *glentan formed with a -ti - suffix and denoting 'the bright place' or the like.

The three forms in -heim are from ON  heimr, cognate with OE  hām.