Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Malgum, Malgon 1086 DB

• Malgum 1176 Percy c.1190 Fount l.12,1257 Font 1257 Ch 1312 Dugdvi

• Malchum 12,c.1222 Font

• Maleghum 1257 Font

• Malghum 12–1328 Font 1131–1247 YChvii c.1140 Dugdvi 1154–91 RegAlbi,70d 1202 FF 1220–40,1294 Furn 1287,1295 BltComp8,24d 1461 Vyner

• Malghun 1314 Pat

• Malghom 1353 Fount 1379 Font

• Malhum c.1150 Yorke c.1200 Percy 1285 KI

• Malhom 1175 Fount 1423 Baild 1428 FA 1441 Pat

• Malum 1285 Baild

• Mallum 1311 1571 YDiii

• Mallom(e) 1417,1421 Pat 1548 WillY

• Malgham 1303 KF 1597 FF

• Mallam 1457 FountBurs

• Malham 1535 VE 1553 FF 1623 FF

• Malham in Craven 1496 FountPres 1638 WillY

• Malholme 1540 FF, Fount

• Mawl(h)am 1560 FF 1602–84 PRMl

• Maum 1709 PRArn 1769 T.Gray,JournalintheLakes

Etymology

This difficult p.n. clearly goes back to some appellative like malg in the dat.pl. -um , and in the gen.pl. Malga - in the compound p.ns. Malhamdale 128supra , Malham Moor 137, Malham Water 139 and Water Houses 140infra . Ekwall has connected it with the Swed lake-name Maljen (earlier Malghe ) and with ON  mǫl 'gravelly soil', ON  melr 'sand-bank'. Two difficulties arise, however. One is the word-form; the spellings of Malham presuppose an original malg - or malh ; Ekwall suggests an adj. *maligr 'gravelly', perhaps in its definite form *malgi 'the gravelly place' (with dat.pl. *malgum ). It is this adj. maligher 'sandy' which is thought by Hellquist, Svenska sjönamn i, 390, to occur in the Swed lake-name Maljen and it is also found as the first el. of the Swed  p.n. Malexander (OSwed  Malghasander ); Norrby, however, thought the latter was from an OSwed  *malgh 'sand'. The root *malh - 'sand, gravel' is, according to Pipping (Finländska Ortnamn 82, Studier i nordisk filologi xii, 1, 55), the source of the lake name Mälaren (OSwed  Mælir ), and, according to Professor Sahlgren, of the Swed  word mal 'sand, gravel' and Skåne dial. word mal 'a mass of sharp stones which have broken away from the rocks'; v. also K. Wijkander, Ortnamn på Kullaberg (1957).It is common enough in Scandinavian names like Swed  Malan (earlier i Malum ), Malsjön (cf. A. Falkman, Ortnamnen i Skåne (Lund 1877) 73), Malan (V. Jansson, Nordiska Vin-namn (Uppsala 1951) 99), Norw  Maalsjøn (NE 153), etc. The second difficulty is a semantic one; the root-form of the proposed malh - (ON  mǫl ) is used chiefly of 'sand, gravel', 'pebbles', as also are the compounds malar - grjót 'beach pebbles', and malar-kambr 'a ridge of pebbles on the beach'. Other cognates and derivatives of the root *mal - are ON  melr 'sand-bank', OE  mealmiht 'sandy', ModE  malm 'soft chalky rock, chalk marl', Goth  malma 'sand'; the original meaning would appear to be 'something ground small' (cf. Goth malan , ON mala 'to grind'); hence 'sand' or 'gravel' would be the basic meaning of the word malh -. None of the meanings for these various related words is topographically appropriate for Malham; the mountain above has, it is true, many acres of limestone outcrop, but these great clusters of solid hard rock are not the kind of material described by any of the words cognate with mal ; the scree round the foot of Gordale Scar probably originates in the collapse of a great cave there in 1730.

The most remarkable features of local topography are Malham Cove, a great cliff at the head of the deep valley of Malham Beck which terminates abruptly in a massive limestone cliff, and Gordale, a deep narrow gorge again terminating in a lofty cliff, both results of the Craven fault. There is an ON  malr 'sack, bag' (earlier malh -) corresponding to OHG  malaha , MHG  malhe 'a bag, a sack', and this word could well have been used figuratively to describe these two great coves in the limestone. Such an explanation has indeed been made by Olsen (Arkiv f. nord. Fil. xxii, 104 ff) for the Norw  p.ns. Maasnes (NG v, 258) and Malangen (ib xvii, 120); the first el. of the former refers to a fishing-water connected by a narrow sound to a much greater water, and that of the latter to a fjord which is broader inside than at its outlet. Such figurative uses in p.ns. can be paralleled (cf. Rygh, NG xvii, 120, EPN i, xxiii and s.v. bagga , cēode ), and it is the fact that they are figurative uses and not common appellatives that makes them rare. Malham may well be from an early ON í malhum and mean '(place near) the hollows'.

But whether it is from malh - in the sense 'sand' or malh - 'bag', the retention of the fricative -h - in ME  Malg (h )um needs comment.There is evidence (esp. runic evidence) which shows that -h - was still sometimes retained after 700, but there are forms which show loss of -h - earlier (cf. Pipping, Neuphilol . Mitteilungen xvi (1914), 124 ff, Magnus Olsen, Stedsnavnestudier (1912) 58). Malham, if a Scand p.n., would indicate preservation of -h - to at least the ninth century. v. Addenda.