Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

One might possibly compare Arscott infra 147 were it not that in the latter name Ars - is clearly a late corruption of Ash -. In this name it is difficult to see how Ars - arose already in the first half of the 14th cent. Possibly the first form is corrupt and the first element may be ersc , hence , 'cottage by the earsh-land.' We may, at least in the second Arscott, have the common Devon dialectal development of [æʃ] to [ɑˑʃ] found in splash , wash and ash itself.Cf. Arson infra 356 and Ash in Parkham supra 105.