Bouts
Early-attested site in the Parish of Inkberrow
Historical Forms
- Boltes 1271 For 1357 Pat
- Bulces 1275 SR
- Bultus 1383 Ct 1439 StratGild
- Boulters 1559 Wills
- Boults 1654,1662 FF
Etymology
Jellinghaus (Die Westfälischen ON 32) notes an element bolte or bult denoting a small rounded hill. This is the MLG bulte , ModLG bulte , Dutch bult , Swiss bulzi , all used with much the same sense of something rounded, a heap, a small hill. From Low German it was loaned into the various Scandinavian dialects and appears as Dan bylt , Swed bylte , Norw bulten , Shetland bolt . The word clearly belongs to the West Germanic dialects and must have had two forms of the stem, bulti and bulta . The latter must have given rise to a lost OE bult in which, contrary to the usual rule, u was preserved owing to the initial b and possibly also because of the following l , cf. Wright, OE Grammar § 108 for other similar words. For the full history of its cognates v. Falk og Torp, Etymologisk Ordbog , s. v. bylte and Torp, Nynorsk Etym . Ordbog , s. v. bulten .Small hills suit the site of Bouts and Lower Bouts, for there are two or three small isolated hills in the neighbourhood.v. Bilford supra 111 for a possible example of the mutated bylte .