Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• borslea, æt borslea c.970 BCS1247

• Borslegh 1316 FA

• Borsleie alias Borslegh 1316 Ipm

• Bosleia 1086 DB

• Boreslegh 1286 Ipm 1411 Exon

• Borseley 1733 Recov

Etymology

This name seems to contain the same first element as Boscombe (W), 1199Borscumbe (PN W 30). No OE  word bors is known, but it is possible that such existed. The common word burr is generally taken to be a Scandinavian loan word (cf. Norw, Dan, Sw borre , with the same sense), going back to an IE  root *bhers which, with a different ablaut vowel and suffixed t , is familiar to us in bristle from OE  byrstel . bors may be an old plant-name denoting something of a spiky or bristling nature.Such a word might well be found compounded with leah or cumb .Risdon and Fursdon infra 176, 177, close at hand, are names of a similar nature.