Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Tangelye 1272 Ass 1332 SR

• Tangheley 1294 Ass

• Tangley 1524 ADvi

Etymology

Great Tangley is Tangelye 1272Ass et freq to 1332 SR, with variant spellings Tangeleye , Tangeleg (h ), Tangheley 1294Ass , Tangley 1524 AD vi. Tang-names are by no means certain of explanation.As noted above under Tongham supra 182 there was certainly an OE  *twang , 'tongs,' used in place-names. Tonge (Lei), Tong (Sa) and Tong (Y) all lie at the junction of streams, and in Tong (Y) and possibly in both Tonge (Lei) and Tong (Sa) we have evidence that the earliest form was *twang . The w was early lost, partly, no doubt, through confusion with the common English tong from OE  tang (e ), partly through absorption of w before following o from a . Tangmere (PN Sx 97) has early forms which make OE  *twang impossible, though OE  tang (e ) is possible.Unfortunately, the mere from which Tangmere takes its name no longer exists, and we do not know why the mere was so called.Tangley in Wonersh may take its name from lying between the junction of two streams, but this explanation will not apply to Tangley (Ha), Tangeleie 1212Ass , which lies on a spur of land with no streams near. Here we certainly cannot have OE  *twang .Rather, we must take it that we have a lost OE  tang (e ), 'tongue, or tang of land.' The common English tang , 'something pointed,' is almost certainly a Norse loan-word, but that its cognate existed in the Low German dialects is shown by the East Frisian tang (e ), 'tongue of land,' 'long narrow sandy ridge,' and the like (v. Doornkaat-Koolman s. v .). Tangley (Sr) might also possibly be interpreted as 'wood or clearing on the spur of land.' The corresponding Scandinavian word is used very freely in p.n.'s.