Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Dimelton(a), Dymelton(a) 1086 DB 1150–60 YCh 13th Melsa 1275 Meaux 1550 FF

• Dymilton 1260 Rental

• Dimbilton' 1260 Rental, YI

• Dymbleton 1535 VE

• Dombleton 1550 FF

• Dimlington 1828 Langd

• Dombles 1339 Extent

• Dombel 1341 ib

Etymology

It is difficult to dissociate Dimlington from Dimpelhole (1260Rental , 1339Extent ), the name of a field in this place; dimpel in the field-name is certainly the OE  *dympel 'pool, hollow' which Ekwall suggests is the source of Dumplington (PN La 38) and which is cognate with Norw  dump 'pit, pool,' Dan  dial dump 'a natural depression in the earth,' OHG  dumphilo 'pool,' Germ  dial dümpfel , dümpel 'a deep place in the water' (v. Kluge, Etym. Wörterbuch s.v. tümpel ). Cf. also Hagley's Dumble in Eakring (Nt), Dumple c. 1650 Notts. Corp. Records 75. The main difficulty in associating Dimlington with this word is in the early and consistent loss of p . This is so far unparalleled, but if we can assume it, there would be no difficulty in OE  dymel having an occasional spelling dimbil in ME, with the not uncommon intrusion of b , as in brambel , brembel from bremel , etc. On the other hand, the phonetic problems would be simplified if we could start from an OE  *dymbel , for loss of b in such a word can be paralleled (cf. Jordan, Handbuch der mittelenglischen Grammatik 211). The existence of an OE  *dumbel side by side with mutated *dymbel is suggested by the modern dialect words dimble , dumble generally used of 'a deep shady dell' but sometimes in the compound dumble-hole used of 'a hollow, a pit, usually overgrown with trees' or in dumble-pit of 'a piece of stagnant water in a wood or dell.' These two words seem to be confined to the Midlands, but we have early evidence of the unmutated form in the field-names Dombles 1339Extent described as a pasture encircling a pool (pastura circa eandem marram ) and Dombel 1341 ib., both in Holderness (Owthorne, Withernwick).OE  *dumbel may well be a derivative of the word dub 'a muddy or stagnant pool, a deep dark pool in a river' with a nasal infix, as in *dympel , similarly connected with dip . Unfortunately the words related to dub , namely dab , dabble , dib , are not evidenced very early and their ultimate origin is equally obscure (v. NED, EDD s.vv.). Dib at any rate is found as a topographical element in Great Dibb (WRY), Dibe c. 1290 YD. Amongst all the uses of these words, including dimble and dumble , the commonest is that of 'deep place, pool,' and this may well be the meaning in Dimlington. It is certainly the kind of topographical feature one would expect in Holderness. There is no semantic difficulty in supposing that the well-evidenced meaning 'deep and shady dell' is an extension of the original idea (cf. PN Wa 90 s. n. Dumble). If this alternative is correct, then the local occurrence of Dimpelhole is a coincidence or its form is an error for Dimbelhole . v. tun .