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.

Boot

Early-attested site in the Parish of Eskdale and Wasdale

Historical Forms

  • Bout, (the) Bought 1587 Eskdale
  • Bought 1627,1795 PR
  • Boot 1791 ib

Etymology

Cf. close called boughte de bekk 1578Cocker (in Nether Wasdale). This is ME  bouʒt , 'bend, turn,' aptly descriptive (as Professor Tait noted for us) of the acute re-entrant angle which the valley makes at Boot above the confluence of the Whellan Beck with the Esk. Cf. bought in NED; the form byht , whence bight , recorded in OE, had i -mutation.