English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Sleightholme Dale

Early-attested site in the Parish of Kirkby Moorside

Historical Forms

  • Sletholme 1301 LS
  • Slehtholme 1386 Riev
  • Sl(e)ightholm(e)dale 1538 Riev 1621 NR

Etymology

'Flat ground near water' v. sletta , holmr , and cf. Barnby Sleights and Sleightholme 135, 305infra .

The first element is from early ON  *sleht - (which later became slétta ), and the normal development of this in the dialect would be [sliːt] (v. Sleightholme 305infra ). The modern pronunciation [slɛit] is irregular, and, as Cowling (§§ 149, 172, 226) suggests for some other word, it is a borrowing from RSE.