Nomenclature
is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms
in a particular field.
Taken from
'The Place-names of Somerset' by James S. Hill, B.D published
1914.
Curiosities of Nomenclature.
Petherton
is on the River Parrett. There are many places that owe the origin of
their names to the river name. Ancient names of mountains and rivers
are, as we have seen, generally Celtic. We may gather these names,
that seem to be reminiscent of Parrett, into connection. North
Petherton is three miles south-west of Bridgwater, and South
Petherton is on the Parrett, which passes here under a stone bridge
of three arches, about which a curious story is told. Not our
business now. It is usually said that the names of these towns are
due to their situation on the Parrett, that is, the Pedred, as it was
called. The river name was, it is further asserted, the name borrowed
from Pedrida, King of the West Saxons, mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle. And so we suppose, in that case, are the names. North
Perrot, two miles north-east of Crewkerne, near the source of the
river; also Petherham, in Cannington, which is bounded on the north
and east by the River Parrett. And there is Puriton, on the Parrett,
three miles and a half from Bridgwater, near to the confluence of the
estuary with the Bristol Channel.
Now if we
look at the spellings, Petherton is Peretona (i.e., Peret-tona), and
Peret-ton in the T.E. [Taxatio Ecclesiastica] (1297)
; Perrot is D.B. [Doomsday Book]
Peredt, and T.E. Peret; and Petherham is Perrede-ham, a mere variety
of Peret-ham. Now it is quite certain that the Celtic original, if
this be known, would by the Saxons suffer modification in the
direction of more grip and more consonants, and it is equally
certain, from so many examples, that if Pedrida or Pethritha were the
original — either from the Saxon king, or as Mr. Ferguson, in his
River Names of Europe, connects the form of Pedreda with pi, to
drink, and does not call in the King of Wessex — then the Norman
masters would in all these documents tend to drop the uncouth
incumbrances. When did the modification set in? Anyhow, Pedreda has
not left its presence so likely felt anywhere as in Petherton and
Petherham. On the authority of a writer in the Transactions of the
Somerset Archaeological Society the British name of the river was
Perydon, and this name occurs in a poem of the 7th century by a Welsh
bard. A translation of the poem is found in an appendix to Thiery's
Norman Conquest. Pery-don is plural in form. It is not easy to say
why this is so, save that the name may have been applied to the Tone,
the Ivel, and the Parrett, "the united waters." The name
has also the meaning assigned to it as its origin, "a stream
possessing some wonderful virtue — a Divine river." We do not
know the evidence on which this assertion is based. From the ancient
bard the couplet is quoted:—
"These
is a dream of Peryddon,
That
a long stronghold would rise on its border.”
If the
form Pedrydon were sought for in Celtic (Welsh), then it is said to
mean "that which spreads in four directions." On the
continent of Europe we note that the late Felix
Dahn gives
a fairly equal number to river names of really Germanic and those of
really Celtic derivation, and among them the Virdo. This may be a
related name. Peryd and
(V)Pir(i)d
and Beryd or Bride and Brit are the same originally. Peret and
Parret, preserved through so long and through such varied history,
are, we are persuaded, nearer the original than the confusing Saxon
corruptions or forms of it. Britford, in Wilts, may even be the "ford
on the Brit," Brith, Brit, Pirt, Peart. In Celtic Cornish, Brit
is a characteristic word to describe the glistening scales of the
lissom trout and the movements of the dapper water wagtail. The name
simply imports "the rippling stream." Mr. Edmonds, without
tracking the spellings, says, on the authority of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, "a river named from Pederida, King of the West
Saxons."
The
following appeared in the Guardian 1:—
"It
is generally supposed that the River Parret in Somerset takes its
name from the family name of Perret." The writer found
Fluvius Pareda in a very old Latin map, and so he derives it from
pareda, a barge, and says the natives call it "the barge river."
Dr. Hugh Norris2 commenting on this, believes the word to be of Celtic origin and
derives from pared, a border, and says it was a border river forming
a boundary or division between the British and the Saxon. He says
that the Saxons adopting a word, placed a "d" before a
syllable commencing with "r," and thus pared of the Celt
became padred of the Saxon. As the Norman spelling is for centuries
Paret, I think this claim of Celtic origin is correct, and the
Normans would find this spelling and pronunciation easier than
Pedryd, which curiously enough has been preserved in the place-name
Petherton, but not in the river-name Parrett. How Pared comes to mean
a barge I do not know. Pared means a boundary wall and is not a river
name, and would be, I think, quite unique if so written.
1.
The Guardian, Nov. 27, 1872.
2.
South Petherton in the Olden Time, by Hugh Norris, 1913.
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