Miscellaneous Words. 



265 



Poulton. \ The former of these names is usually spelt 



Pool (Keynes). -J Rul-ton in ancient documents. They are both 

 from the Welsh pwl, which is found in every Celtic dialect, 

 and is radically the same as the Latin pal-ns and the English 

 pool. Compare the Welsh names Pont-y-pwl, Pwl-hill, &c. 

 In the names Pill, applied to a portion of the Avon below 

 Bristol, and Pilton in Somerset, we may trace the same root, 

 perhaps with a diminutive force. See Arch. Journ., xvii., 99. 

 [Owpdl as entering into the composition of a few names found 

 in the Saxon charters see Leo on " Anglo-Saxon names/'' 

 p. 100,] 



Quidhampton. *) The former is the name of places by Salthrop, 

 Quidham (Street) . J Wroughton, and Bemerton,— the latter is by 

 Broad Chalk. They are both derived from the Cornish cuid 

 (= wood) . Quidham means the " homestead by the wood/' 

 Compare Pen-cuit (or Pen-quite) which means a "wood- 

 head." 



30. Key. The name of a small river flowing through Water-Eaton 

 into the Isis near Cricklade. There is also ai?ej/-bridge close to 

 Lackham, and a ifey-down common south of Steeple Ash ton. 

 The river-name would seem to be from the same source as 

 the Rea (in Worcestershire) and possibly also the Wrey (in 

 Devonshire). Fergusson derives this and many other river- 

 names (such as the Rhine, &c.) from the Sanscrit ri (= to 

 flow), Greek pkw, Latin rigo (often applied to rivers "Qua 

 Ister Getas rigat"), Sanscrit rinas (= fluid), old Saxon rilia 

 (= a torrent), Anglo-Saxon regen, English rain, Welsh r/ie 

 ( = rapid), rhean ( = a stream). River Names of Europe, p. 

 41. 



Rowde. Spelt in Domesday Rode, and in the Nom. Vill. Rondes. 

 It is probably derived from the root reiJh, to clear or rid, 

 which though Celtic, and found in Gaelic and Irish, never- 

 theless seems also to belong to other branches of the Indo- 

 European stock. If thus derived the name would mean a 

 " space cleared from the forest." We have Road (formerly 

 spelt Rode) in Somerset, on the borders of our county, and 



