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.

Swinesale

Early-attested site in the Parish of Scalby

Historical Forms

  • Swinestischal 1109–14 YCh
  • Swin(e)stischage, Swyn(e)stischage, Swyn(e)stischache a.1133,1154–89,1189 Whitby 1308 Whitby
  • Swinsey 1619 NRS

Etymology

'Wood near the pig-sty' v. swin , stigu , sceaga . The final element offers some difficulty. The -schall forms in ME  should probably be regarded as orthographic variants of the -schaghe forms, due to the development of a diphthong -au - from OE  -ag -, which was similar in sound to the diphthong -au - from OFr  -al -; the latter was often written al by French scribes after the Conquest, even though its phonetic character had changed.Apparently Norman scribes represented the ME  au (from OE  ag ) in the same way as OFr  au . OFr  al had certainly become au soon after the Conquest (Schwann-Behrens, Altfranz. Gram. § 174) and the new diphthong was frequently written al (op. cit. §§ 174, 233). The probability that ME  au (from OE  ag ) was sometimes represented by al in AN orthography is borne out by the evidence of other place-names. Oakenshaw (YWR), Akanescale 1255 YI, Okeneschagh 1355 YD. (from acen and sceaga ); cf. also the DB form of Aiskew (HangE) 236infra , and Vinehall (Sx), earlier Fynhawe .