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.

Poling

Major Settlement in the Parish of Poling

Historical Forms

  • Paling(e), Palyng t.Hy2 Pat 1361 Cl 1341 Cicestr 1442 Wills 1558 MarC 1580
  • Palinges 1199 ChR c.1245 Pens 1262 Ass
  • Palynges 1271,1295 Ass 1347 SAC46,224
  • Polynge 1305 Ipm
  • Powling 1610 Speed 1669 Wills

Etymology

This is probably 'people or dwellers by the pāl or stake,' possibly referring to a palisade, v. Ekwall, PN in -ing 61. The late preservation of a is noteworthy and difficult to explain, unless we assume that at one stage there was a tendency to shorten the vowel in the trisyllable, a tendency which was never completed, leaving the vowel ultimately to develop in the normal way from ā to ō .

Places in the same Parish