Stittenham
Major Settlement in the Parish of Sheriff Hutton
Historical Forms
- Stidnun 1086 DB
- Stitlum 1185 P 1208 Riev 1295 For
- Stiklum c.1260 Malton
- Stitel(l)um, Stytel(l)um 1275 YI 1284 Ebor 1289 Ebor
- Stitelom 1301 LS
- Stitnum 1250 Riev 1310 Ch 1333 Riev
- Stytenom 1316 Vill
- Stytnam 1316 KF 1443 Test 1615 NR
Etymology
The difficulty of interpreting this name is largely brought about by two facts, (1) that c and t are in the court hand of the 12th and 13th cents. scarcely distinguishable, and (2) that c and t often interchange phonetically in ME , so that it is almost impossible to say whether we have here to deal with an original Stitlum or Sticlum . Most of the Stitlum-spellings may therefore represent Sticlum ; the form Stiklum , however, is orthographically unambiguous, and it points to an original Sticlum . There is no evidence for a word like stitel or stitle which we should have to assume if the original form were Stitlum , but OE sticol (adj.) is frequently used in place-names in the sense 'steep,' and the meaning of Stittenham may, therefore, be 'at the steep (places)' from the dat. plur. sticlum . As a matter of fact this meaning may well be applied to Stittenham, for the village stands on the top of a very steep hill, surrounded on three sides by valleys; the hill rises in places more than 150 feet in a third of a mile.
Professor Ekwall suggests that we may have to do with a noun-derivative sticele , formed from sticol , meaning 'steep place' or the like. The topography is so striking that a name which refers to it is antecedently probable.
On the interchange of c and t before a following l , cf. Kirklington 220infra . The later change of l to n is evidenced also in Hinderskelfe and Hinderwell 40, 138infra . The DB form with -n -should be explained according to Zachrisson (IPN 106ff.) as due to AN interchange of l and n , and no conclusions should be drawn from this name, as by Goodall (NoB v. 102) as to the use of the ON suffixed definite article in English place-names.