Wythemail Park Fm (, Withmale)
Early-attested site in the Parish of Orlingbury
Historical Forms
- Widmale 1086 DB
- Wismalua 1130 P
- Wizmalua 1156 P
- Wimalue 1220 Fees
- Wymale 12th Survey
- Wymall 1284 FA
- Wythemal(e) 13th PeterbB 1330 Ass 1330 Cl 1428 FA
- Wyth- 1571 Recov
- Wimawe, Wymawe 1235 Fees 1240 FF
- Wydemawe 1247 FF
- Whitmal' 1285 Ass
- Wethemale 1316 FA
- Wythmale al. Wymale 1565 ADv
- Wilmer 1791 Bridges
Etymology
This is a difficult name. Possibly it should be taken with Mawsley supra 128, for which, when used as a hundred-name, we have an early form Maleuesle . Professor Ekwall suggests the association of the two names, and would take malue in Wythemail to be the dative of a lost OE *mealo , gen. sg. mealwes , cognate with ON möl , fem., Swed mal , masc., 'stones, gravel.'Mawsley and Wythemail are a few miles apart, Mawsley being on, and Wythemail at the foot of a well marked oolite ridge. It is possible that this, from its stony character, was once called OE mealwe (dat.), ME malwe . Mawsley would in that case be the leah or clearing belonging to this ridge; Wythemail might be explained as describing the place which was wið or against such a ridge. No other examples of wið -compounds have been noted in English p.n.'s, but compounds with other prepositions such as æt , bi , bineoðan , are common and Marstrander (Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap vi, 125, 175) has noted similar compounds of ON við in Iceland and in Scandinavian p.n.'s in the Isle of Man. A further example of the use of this word malwe is found in a field-name le longemalewe (now Long Mollow) in Yelvertoft (13th AD iv), presumably descriptive of a long stony field, while a Long Mallows survives in Clipston.