Snapelands Copse
Early-attested site in the Parish of Selham
Historical Forms
- Le Snapelond in Suleham 1317 Hollist
- Snapland 1535 VE
Etymology
Snapelands Copse (6″) must be the same as Le Snapelond in Suleham (1317Hollist ), Snapland (1535 VE). Skeat was probably right in suggesting (PN Sf 124) that in Snape (Sf) one has the word snæp found in an Anglo-Saxon charter (BCS 1124), in the phrase andlang dun and snæp , now known to be a Sussex charter (v. East Hale Bottom infra 429). We may have the same word in the phrase unam snappam terre in a grant of land near Rye (c. 1200 Pens). In So, Do, and D there is a dialectal word snape , used of 'boggy land,' which in form at least seems to be identical with this word and Skeat was inclined to think that OE snæp had the same sense. There is a ME word snape used once in a NCy poem, apparently of pasture-land (v. PN La 17 s. v .), and appearing in more than one Lancashire and Yorkshire p.n. (loc. cit. and PN SWY 262). This last word has commonly been taken to be a Scandinavian loan-word but it is difficult to keep it apart from the other snapes in the south country and in Norfolk and Suffolk. There are other snapes and snaps in Sx—Snape Fm in Pulborough, Snape in Wadhurst, Snap Hill in Lullington and Snap Bottom in South Heighton. Cf. also Sneps Fm infra 510. The ground is probably boggy in all these cases but it is more difficult to believe that such is the case in the three examples noted in Devon, viz. Snapdown in Satterleigh (1330 SR Snapedon ), Snape in High Bickington (1407 IpmR Snape ), and Snapper in Goodleigh (1256 FF La Snappe ). In the first two cases the ground is fairly high but there may be boggy patches. For the present the exact sense and ultimate etymology of OE snæp , ME snape , must remain undetermined. It may be that the NCy snape is to be kept apart from the SCy one. That can be settled only when we know the distribution of the element as a whole.