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The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, ed. Victor Watts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). Ixiv + 713 pp. ISBN 0-521-36209- 1. £200.00/$300.00.
A. E. Housman once observed that a reviewer's most useful job was usually the listing of errors. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names is a fine volume and will be a standard reference work for decades. Nevertheless, it attracts error as dogs (even pedigree dogs) attract fleas. They include the following.
Blencathra: the second element is not 'unexplained'. It is equivalent to Welsh carthwr 'draught horse'. The Cumbrians likened this Lakeland peak (also called Saddleback) to a dray horse, with a dip in its back. The meaning is thus 'draught-horse summit'.
Bovey and Bovey Tracey: the Devon river name here is not of 'uncertain' derivation. It means 'pignut river, river where pignuts grow' (useful for feeding swine). Compare Welsh bywi 'pignuts', which gives names to streams in Dyfed and Gwynedd.
Bride and Bridport: the Dorset Bride, a gende stream, has no link with a Celtic word meaning 'gushing, boiling'. The sense here is Varm one', as with Nant Brydan, near Carmarthen.
Bude: the explanation 'dirty one' for this form, originally a hydronym, is impossible. Welsh budd 'profit; blessing' and Arbuthnott in Scodand show the sense is 'favourable one', used of a stream with medicinal powers. The river passing Bude is from a region of rock salt, as indicated by Penhallym (compare Cornish holen salt) near its source.
Cray and Crayford: the sense is not 'fresh water' in the sense 'pure, clean'. Welsh crai originally meant 'raw, rough', so that the meaning is 'rough stream, turbulent stream', as shown by Afon Crai in the Brecon Beacons.
Creedy and Crediton: there are no grounds for a sense 'winding one'. The...