Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Liuresech, Livresec 1086 DB

• Lifreseg 1188–1202 YChviii

• Livreseg' 1243 Fees

• Liuerseg(g), Liverseg(g), Lyverseg(g), Lyversegg(e) Hy2 Arm 1170–90 YChviii 1188–1202 1195–1211 YCh 1198 Fount l.12 Font 13 Nost11 1226 FF 1251 Font 1292 YI 1543 Testvi

• Lyversegg(e) Essholt 13 Linds

• Magna Lyversege 1501 Testiv 1503 Ipm

• Lyversyg 1379 PT

• Lyverseghe 1447 YDi

• Lyversage 1540 MinAcct

• Lyversuch 1564 Visit

• Lyversedge 1597 SessnR

• Long(e) Lyversedge 1660 Dep 1669 Arm

• Lyvereshegge 1297 WCR

• Lewerseg' 13 YDvii

• Leverseg(g)e 1285 KI 1349 Ch 1365 YDi 1532 WillY

• Long Leverseg(g)e 1534 WillY

• Loversege 1421 TestLds 1530 Visit

• Leeverseege 1556 FF

Etymology

Moorman, Goodall and Ekwall take this name to be OE  Lēofheres - ecg 'Lēofhere's edge or scarp', from the OE  pers.n. Lēofhere (as in Loversall i, 34 supra ) and ecg; the latter word, however, usually describes in YW a long steep scarp. Although the township is hilly there is nothing in the local topography which could be called an ecg ; in any case the older village was in the bottom of the Spen valley. The name is more likely to be Liver-sedge , the second el. being OE  secg1 'sedge, reeds, rush', used collectively to denote a bed of such plants. The first el. offers more difficulty; if Livre - is original—the evidence for Lever - is in late documents only—we should connect it with lifer 'liver', used of 'thick clotted water' but found also in the compound plant-name liverwort (l.OE  liferwyrt ). From the point of view of meaning of the compound, OE  lēfer (v. lǣfer ), 'rush, reed', seems at least possible; both sedge and dial. levers (from OE  lēfer ) are applied to the wild iris (Iris pseudacorus ), and an OE  compound lēfer -secg denoting some particular variety of rush or flag is likely. There is a phonological difficulty over the development of Lēfer - to Liver -; parallels exist for the raising of ē to ī before dental consonants in e.ME p.n. forms (cf. Zachrisson, Uppsala Universitets Årsskrift 1926, 54–5), but there may well have been early confusion with lifer (which seems to have occurred also in dial. liver-leaves 'the leaves of the yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus ').The phonological problem, which recurs in some of the early spellings of Loversall i, 34supra , is the same if Moorman's derivation from Lēofhere is accepted. The affix Essholt is probably feudal (from Esholt pt. iv infra ); Magna and Long are obvious.