Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• (on) Læncan felda 871–89 BCS558

• (on) Leangafelda 871–89 BCS558

• Lingedefelde 11th HydeAbbeyCartulary

• Lingefeld 12th Lewes 1167 P 1199 FF 1235 Ass

• Linchesfeud 1270 Winton

• Lengefelde 1279 Ass

• Linggefeld 1305 Ass

• Lynggefeld 1325 Ass

• Lygnefeld 1359 FF

• Lynkefeld 1507 FF

• Linvil 1675 Ogilby

Etymology

This is a difficult name, and not made any easier by the fact that the two OE forms, derived from the same document (probably an original), are inconsistent with one another, and suggest that already in the 9th century there was some confusion in the forms of the name. Nothing can be done with leanga -, and it can only be suggested that læncan - is the more correct form or possibly lænca -, for there is no further trace of the n .In PN Wo 148–9 it was shown that there was good reason to assume the existence of an OE  hlence , earlier hlænce , related to hlinc and used in much the same sense. A name hlæncafeld , 'open land of (or with) terraces,' would not be inapt for the site of Lingfield, where the village slopes down from the church towards the east. The loss of initial h is somewhat surprising in a 9th century text. The explanation may be, as suggested above, that confusion had already arisen with regard to the name and the first element had been influenced by the common word lang .The later history would be that lench became lenge , in the same way that linch commonly became linge , and was ultimately replaced by that word, so that the name became Linge-feld (cf. the 14th century forms in Lingge -). At some later date, perhaps after Lingefield had been reduced to Linfield (cf. Linvil in 1675), the name was rationalised to Lingfield , with a suggestion of ling , which is not a southern word at all. For a suggested alternative derivation cf. Karlström 106.