Ware
Major Settlement in the Parish of Ware
Historical Forms
- Waras 1086 DB
- Wares 1190–1204 France 1191 P 1240 FF
- Wara 1086 DB 1175 P
- Ware 1200 Cur
- Waer c.1150 God
- Warre 1255 Ass 1500 Ipm
Etymology
Skeat's suggestion (66) that this is the OE waras , 'people, dwellers,' an earlier prefix having been lost, is unlikely, as such a type of name would be without parallel. As Ware lies beside the river Lea, the name probably goes back to OE wær , a by-form of wer, 'weir,' etc. Cf. Fuller (Worthies ii, 18): “Weare is the proper name of that Town (so called anciently from the Stoppages , which there obstruct the River…),” and Johnston, PNEW s. n .The earliest forms probably do not point to an alternative plural form, but show the inorganic s , so frequently added to monosyllabic place-names by DB scribes, as in the common Stoches .Cf. s. n. Sacombe supra 137.