Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Seavy mea 1636 BdyR(M.3)

• Seve man 1652 ib

• Seauy man ib

Etymology

Seavy Man, 1684Dd , 1823 M, Seavy mea 1636BdyR (M. 3), Seve man 1652 ib (M. 4), Seauy man ib (M. 5), a place on the Muker (YN) boundary. Originally 'sedgy pasture', from a derivative of ON  sef 'sedge, rush' and ModE  dial. mea 'pasture' (cf. Braidamaya YW vi, 251), which occurs in a dozen other local names like Flowery Mea (ii, 6supra ), Capple Mere (infra ), Moudy Mea, Dobson Mere (ii, 78, 109 infra ), etc. The name referred to a pile of stones on the county boundary at grid 90–803027, hence the substitution of man , which is used in the Lake District of a cairn on the top of a hill (v. NED s.v. man ), as in Greatrigg Man (i, 200supra ) and Knock Old Man (ii, 116infra ), where it occurs from 1588; this use of man is paralleled by that of ON  maðr 'man' in Norw and Icel  p.ns. like Mannen , Maður , etc., karl 'man', kerling 'old woman', etc. (cf. Hovda 200, Franzen, LaxdON 64–5, 125–6).