Miscellaneous Words. 



259 



Kemble. Near Malmesbury,and close to the Gloucestershire border 

 of the county. In various charters this name occurs as 

 Kemele or Cemele, and, in Domesday, as Clientele} It has 

 been suggested that it may be compounded of the Cornish 

 chi, che, he (Welsh cae) meaning a house, or field, (though 

 primarily an enclosure,) and the Celtic meale (Welsh mo el) a 

 round hill, bare at the top. In Lancashire the sand-hills on 

 the coast are termed meols. The word Kemble, if there be 

 truth in this etymology, may be equivalent to " hill-house/'' 



Kill-Barrow. A large tumulus not far from Imber. In Cornwall 

 Kill is used in local names,and is referred by Pryce to the Corn, 

 and Welsh Kelli, or Gelli, a grove. In Gaelic and Irish rill 

 means a cell, or burying-ground, or grave. In the Cambrian 

 Register for 1795 there is a list of local names in Merioneth- 

 shire with their English equivalents, and Gill or Cil, when in 

 composition, is explained as a retreat, or retired place, or 

 sanctuary. The idea of privacy is at the root of all these 

 words. Compare the Sanscrit hull (= to cover), the Latin 

 celo and cella, and the Anglo-Saxon helan (— to cover) . The 

 name Kill-barrow may perhaps mean the " barrow in the 

 grove/'' or remote and concealed place. By the way, the 

 Wiltshire word for " covering up," is heling : they talk, for 

 example, of " heling " potatoes. 



26. Knoyle. The name of two villages in the south western part 

 of the county. In the Wilton Chartulary 2 it is spelt C/mgel, 

 and in Domesday Chenuel. In the Wilts Inst. (1314) we 

 have it as Knoel. It is derived perhaps from the Welsh cnol 

 (Angl.-Sax. cnoll), a round hillock, in fact a knoll, [With 

 the oldest form may be compared however the Anglo-Saxon 

 cnucl which is given in some Dictionaries as equivalent io 

 the English hiuchle or joint.] 



Knook. A chapelry of Heytesbury. In Domesday it is spelt 

 Cumtche, which seems only another form of Conocl (see above 



1 Cod. Dipl., 24, 271. Wilts Domesday, 30. 

 2 Cod. Dipl., 422, 462. 



