Dumple Street
Early-attested site in the Parish of Scarborough
Historical Forms
- the Dompyll 1500 Test
Etymology
This name should be compared with Dumplington (PN La 38) which Professor Ekwall derives from an unrecorded OE dympla 'a small dent in the earth,' cf. OHG dumphilo . The word is probably the origin of the English word dimple , the earliest recorded sense of which is 'a small hollow in a plump part of the human body' (NED from 1400). The later meaning 'a dip in the surface of the earth,' judging from the cognate words, is in reality probably earlier. The actual word dumple found in this place-name is hardly a direct descendant of OE dympla , but must be from an unmutated OE dumpel from a Germanic base *dump -; cf. ON dump 'pit, pool,' Germ dialect dumpf , dümpel 'a deep place in flowing or stagnant water' (Grimm), and the modern dialect (YNR) dump 'a deep hole in the bed of a river or pond' (Atkinson, Cleveland Glossary ), dumble (Nt) 'stream with steep sides.'