Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Plungar(') c.1130 LeicSurv 1225 RHug 1411 BelCartB 1473 CCR 1502 MiscAccts

• Plungare Hy2 BelCartB e.15 Rut l.12 RHug 1209×35 Rut 1529

• Pluncgar 1220 MHW 1209×35 RHug

• Plunger Hy3,e.14 Rut 1553 Pat 1576 Saxton

• Plumgar 1243 Fees 1254 Val 1525 Wyg 1559 Pat

• Ploungar l.13 Rut

• Plonger 1480 1508 Ipm

• Plounger 1541 MinAccts

• Plumgath c.1130 LeicSurv

• Plumgarth 1253×58 RHug c.1291 Tax e.14 BelCartA 1517 EpCB 1518 Rut

• Plumgard c.1130 LeicSurv 1187 P Hy3 Rut 1328 Banco

• Plomgarth 1505,1506,1508 Rut

• Plungard' 1155×68,1174×82 Rut 1186 P 1253 FConc 1260 Cur 1305,1308 Rut 1328 BelCartB e.15 Ch 1333

• Plungarde 1302 Rut

• Plungarth' Hy3 1274 Ass l.13 Wyg 1513,1519 1579 LEpis 1604 SR

• Plungarthe Hy3 Rut

• Plungart' 1312 Wyg 1340 Ch

• Plungerthe Edw1 Rut

• Plongarth' 1343 Cl 1343 Rut 1502 Wyg 1534 Rut

• Ploungart' Edw3 ib

Etymology

The first el. of the name is OE  plūme 'a plum-tree'. Spellings as late as the 17th cent. appear to show a continuing variation between OE  gāra 'a gore, a triangular plot of ground' and Scand  garðr 'an enclosure' as the generic. While the notion of an original OE  compound *plūm -gāra with the replacement of the OE generic by a Scand one is attractive, an original OE /Scand  hybrid *plūm -garðr with later confusion of garðr and gāra cannot be discounted in this area, especially as the name may have been of relatively late creation. The concept of an enclosed plot planted with plum-trees makes reasonable sense, but it could be argued that a gore of ground growing with wild plum-trees may eventually have been enclosed, hence gāra was replaced by garðr to describe accurately this development in husbandry. That spellings in -gar may simply be the result of the reduction through loss of an original garðr seems unlikely.Hence, we have originally either 'the point of land growing with plum- trees' or 'the plum-tree enclosure'. The former may have given way to the latter, or else there was contemporary confusion between gāra and garðr , v. plūme , gāra , garðr .