28 TEESBALE PLACE-NAMES. 



In Greek, Latin, and the Latin languages, also in the Scandi- 

 navian and Teutonic tongues, an ancient and widespread word. 

 Perhaps frojn Greek through Latin — perhaps the Teutonic came 

 from Greek direct. 



Uy. Eyke. Biggen. 



" Icel. beer, hoar, or hijr. In Icel. people say bar, in Norway 

 ho ; in Swed. and Den. % ; the root word being htia, hu. This 

 Avord is very frequent in local names of towns and villages 

 throughout the whole of Scandinavia. 1 . A town, \dllage ; this 

 is the Norse, Swedish, and Danish notion. 2. A farm, landed 

 estate ; this is the Icel. notion, as that country has no towns ; 

 bar. in Icel. answers to the German hof: Norw. bol, and Dan. 

 guard, denoting a farm, or farm yard and buildings, or both 

 together." • 



" £»., (Heliand bii, domicilium ; 0. H. G. bii ; Mod. Ger. 

 Jrtw^tillage, cultivation, also Hel. beo or Jewrzseges, cp. also Teut. 

 hoi(,ivtz=.m.Q%?is,, in Schmeller Heliand Glossary ; — hu is an apoco- 

 pate form qs. ''bug,'' or '■hugg,^ the root remains unaltered in 

 the branch to which Icel. bygg, hyggja, and other words belong), 

 a house ; ha and h(E (byr) are twins from the same root {bua) 

 beer is the house, bit the household ; the Gr. oiko?, embraces 

 both." 



" Biia (originally a reduplicated and contracted verb answer- 

 ing to Goth, bitan, of which the pret. may have been haibau ; by 

 huan TJlfilas (Moeso-Goth;) renders Gr. oiKeiv, /carotKetv ; Hel. 

 hiian, habitare ; Ger. bauen ; Swed. and Dan. bo. The Icelandic 

 distinguishes between the strong neuter and originally redupli- 

 cated verb biia, and the transitive and weak hyggja. Bioa seems 

 to be kindred to Gr. ^uw, Ic^vcra (cp. Sansk. hhit, hhavdmi, Lat. 

 fui) ; byggja to Lat. facio, cp. Swed. and Dan. bygga, Scot, and 

 North E. to big, i.e., to build; cp. Lat. cecUficare, nidificare ; 

 again, the coincidence in sense with the Gr. ot/cos, oikuv, and 

 Lat. vicus, is no less striking." 



" Biia, as a root word, is one of the most interesting words in 

 the Scandin. tongues, bii, beer, bygg, bygth, byggja, &c., all belong 



