Blasworth
Early-attested site in the Parish of Great Staughton
Historical Forms
- Blaywurth 1227 Ass
- Blaysworth, Blayswurth 1241 FF 1254 Pat 1279 RH 1286 Ass
- Blaesworth 1255 For 1260 Ass
- Bleyswrth 1260 Ass
- Bleieswrth 1279 RH
- Blesworthe 1279 RH 1286 Ass
- Blayesworth 1286 Ass
- Blaythesworth 1286 Ass
- Blysworth 1286 Ass
- Blasworth 1535 VE
Etymology
No certainty can be attained with regard to this name. With the second element worð and a first element in the possessive, the presumption is that the former is a pers. name. The form Blaythesworth found in 1286, which at first sight seems to provide a clue to a fuller form, is probably to be taken rather as a bad spelling, due to anticipation of the th which is to come later in the word. The diphthong ay , ey has arisen presumably from the loss of an intervening consonant, which might be g (when the loss would be perfectly normal) or th (when we should have an example of the common intervocalic loss of th due to AFr influence, cf. Sawtry, Meagre supra 195, 264). There is an OE blǣge , 'gudgeon, bleak,' which may conceivably have been used as a pers. name by way of nickname, cf. the common metaphorical use of gudgeon of 'a greedy person.' This would readily explain the later forms. Alternatively OE blēað , ME blethe , 'soft, effeminate,' may equally well have given rise to a nickname which would, though not quite so readily, explain the later forms.