Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Meledon(e) 1175 P 1292 Ipm

• Melledon 1244 Ass

Etymology

The first element in this name would seem to be identical with that found in Melbury supra 105, 130, Milbury and Melhuish infra 496, 452. We must probably take with them Melbury Abbas (Do), Meleburg , Mealeburg in BCS 970 (late copy), Melbury Bubb (Do), 1297 Pat Melebury , Melcombe Regis (Do), DBMelcome , 1280 Ch Melecumbe and Melcombe Horsley (Do), 1285 FA Melecumbe and Melplash (Do), 1303 FA Meleplays . The place-name which may give the clue to this group of names is Millbarrow Down (Ha), which appears as meolæn beorge (BCS 620), copy of original charter, mælan beorh (ib. 622), mælan beorge (BCS 1077), the last three being from the Codex Wintoniensis. It is difficult to know what authority to give to the form in BCS 620, especially as it is inconsistent with the later development and the charter cannot be contemporary. Toller (B.T. Supplt. s. v. mæle ) suggests that we have here an OE  adjective mǣle , 'spotted, variegated,' hitherto only noted in the compound unmǣle , 'not spotted.' For such an epithet applied to ground cf. the common use of OE  fah, 'stained, variegated' (v. Voaden supra 176). Zachrisson (Romans , Kelts and Saxons 52–3), offers different explanations of this element, viz. (1) that it is the Old Celtic mailo -, 'bare, bald,' (2) that it is that word substantivised to denote 'bare hill.'The first explanation can hardly hold good, for it involves the use of a British adjective and that in an inflected form before an English noun. Such a formation is without parallel. It should be added perhaps that as the Melburys and Milbury contain burh rather than beorg as their second element, one would have to interpret these names as 'bare burh,' a name which does not seem very likely, and not as 'bare hill.' With regard to (2) there seems to be no evidence for the use of the adjective mailo - as a noun denoting a hill in early times, for Meole (Sa) is a difficult name which is capable of a different explanation (cf. Ekwall RN 287), and no example of such a place-name has been found in Cornwall. It would also leave the persistent inflexional syllable unexplained and could not be used in explanation of the Melcombes and Melplash.