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Old English ∗geol, ∗goluGillis KristenssonPublished online: 21 Jul 2008.

To cite this article: Gillis Kristensson (1969) Old English ∗geol, ∗golu, StudiaNeophilologica, 41:1, 130-134, DOI: 10.1080/00393276908587431

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Old English *geol, *golu

In Nordiska ordför vattensamlinğ1 H. Jonsson gives a detailed survey of

Germanic words which may be descended from /-extensions of the Indo-

European root 'gape, be open'. While there is no doubt that

PrGerm *gul- forms the base of various terms with the primary sense

of 'hollow', Jonsson arrives at the conclusion that the existence of a

PrGerm *geul- cannot be proved, even if such a base may lie behind, for

instance, MHG giel 'hollow, gulf. His critical evaluation of the material

available concludes with the statement that PrGerm *gul- (in Swed göl)

may belong to the Indo-European root *§hëu-, but that, in the absence

of certain evidence of PrGerm *geul-, *gaul-, the connection between

*gul- and Indo-European méjhëu- 'gape, be open' must remain hypo-

thetical.

There are, however, some early English forms which definitely point

to PrGerm *geul-. In the Northumberland Lay Subsidy Rolls for 1316

(membrane 5)* we find one Thomas del Jole, and one Johannem del Joel

is mentioned in the Halmote Court Rolls for 1367-68 (p. 67).3 In these

names del is a contraction of the prep, de and the French definite article

le, and Jole and Joel are topographical terms. Thomas del Jole was

assessed in Callaly in Northumberland, and Johannem del Joel is men-

tioned under Moorsley in the County of Durham. Modern maps give

no clue as to the meaning of the terms, but the two surnames certainly

contain the same ME noun, which also crops up in super yole in the

following passages in Memorandum Book of Thomas Swynton, 1446-

1458:* ' . . . e t iiij Acras in norhtflat iijí. iiiji., et j Acr. super yole vij¿,

1 H. Jonsson, Nordiska ord för vattensamling. Lund, 1966. (Lundastudier inordisk språkvetenskap 16.)

2 Lay Subsidy Rolls (unpublished) preserved in the Public Record Office(No. 158/7).

3 Halmota Prioratus Dunelmensis. The Publications of the Surtees Society.Vol. LXXXII (1889).

4 Memorials of the Abbey of St. Mary of Fountains. Vol. III. Consisting ofBursars' Books, 1456-1459, and Memorandum Book of Thomas Swynton, 1446-1458. The Publications of the Surtees Society. Vol. cxxx (1918).

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OLD ENGLISH *GEOL, *GOLU 131

et iiij acr. ad finem gardini sui vocati Movsecrofte ijs. iiijd.,...' (pp. i82f),' . . . xiij Acras terra in Grangeflat ix*. ijd., j Acram super yole vijrf., di.Acr. super Greynlandys iijd ..." (p. 184), ' ... super londyrbargsyke di.acr. iijd. ob. super yole, j acr. vijrf. super grenlandes, ..." (p. 185). Thespelling oe in Joel indicates ME p,1 and we are concerned with the pro-nunciation [/o:/(a)], j being an Anglo-Norman spelling for jj].2 Theabove forms may be reflexes of OE *geol3 in some topographical meaningwhich cannot be established on the basis of the forms adduced. No OEgeol in a topographical sense is recorded in Bosworth-Toller,4 butMiddendorff5 books OE geol 'Schlund, Schlucht' on the authority ofgeolesburna in a charter from 960. The charter concerned is preserved ina copy in the Codex Wintoniensis (12th century), and is printed in BCS8

(No. 1054), where the boundary survey runs as follows:

Dis sint bara. x. hida land gemsere to Ytingstoce. /Erest of breting maedenor&e weardre ut on icenan. fram brentinge to fcsere gearn windan fet. ofSasre gearn windan faet to stybban snade 6er waer 6a twegen wegas tolicgaQ.ponon to cuntan heale. of pan heale to wifeles stigele. of 5sere stigele togeolesburna. of pam burnan to 5am readan fordan. of pam forda ut onicena on {jet west ste5 ut 7lang pest staSes. eft on brenting pser we asr onfengon.

Birch ascribes the charter to Bishopstoke in Hampshire, and Grundy7

follows Birch in assigning it to the old parish of Bishopstoke, includingFair Oak and Stoke Park (about 6 miles south of Winchester).8 Accordingto Grundy Geolesburna 'is undoubtedly the brook which runs past Lake

1 G. Kristensson, A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290-1350. The SixNorthern Counties and Lincolnshire (Lund, 1967), p. 93.

2 Cf. Kristensson, op. cit., p. 207.3 See K. Luick, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache (Leipzig, 1914-

40), §§ 265, 360.4 J. Bosworth, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Ed. and enlarged by T. N. Toller.

Oxford, 1898-1921.5 H. Middendorff, Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch. Halle, 1902.6 BCS=W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum. London, 1885-93. The

charter appears as no. 1227 in J. M. Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici.London, 1839-48.

7 G. B. Grundy, 'The Saxon Land Charters of Hampshire with Notes onPlace and Field Names', The Archaeological Journal 78 (1921).

8 P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters. An Annotated List and Bibliography(London, 1968), p. 227, identifies Ytingstoce with Itchen Stoke in Hampshirewithout stating any reasons for this identification, however. Grundy's argumentsfor Bishopstoke, on the other hand, are well founded and, in my opinion, need notbe doubted. It may be mentioned that cuntan heale and wifeles stigele also occur inthe Durley charter (901 BCS 596), a boundary survey relating to Durley imme-diately east of the old parish of Bishopstoke.

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132 G. KRISTENSSON

Farm'. No OE personal name Geol is on record. Late OE Ιδία (on coins)is Scandinavian,1 and can hardly have occurred in Hampshire. Thebrook past Lake Farm flows from a small lake to the river lichen, and itmay be suggested that the small lake2 was called the Gëol and thatGeolesburna means 'bourn from the Gëol'. If this is right, Gëol is adescendant of PrGerm *geul- with the primary meaning of 'hollow',and later 'hollow filled with water'.

The above forms in all probability represent OE *geol from PrGerm*geul-, which also occurs in MHG giel 'hollow, gulf and perhaps in ONGioì- (in place-names) and Swed dial, -gjul (in place-names). From aformal point of view an OE *gëol may enter into the place-names YOUL-

TON (in the North Riding) and YAWTHORPE (in Lincolnshire), whichEkwall holds to contain ODan Ioti, and YOULGREAVE (in Derbyshire),which Ekwall derives from OE geolu 'yellow' and gräf, grœfe.3 JOLBY

(in the North Riding) is generally taken to be a compound of OFr jfoheland ON býr,* but such a derivation causes difficulties in that there is nodefinite evidence in the North Riding of by as a living place-nameelement after the Norman Conquest.5 It is possible that Jolby containsOE *gëol and that the isolated 12th-century spelling Joheleby is due toinfluence from the name of one Joel ( < jfohel) who is said to have livedat the place 1170.*

PrGerm *gul- is well evidenced in the Germanic languages. Swed göl,MHG gülle, and south Germ dial, gülle go back to PrGerm mguliö(n),LG, EFris göl{e) and Du geul to PrGerm *guli- and LG gaal and DuGole- (in place-names) to PrGerm *gulö.7 Whether PrGerm *gul- occursin English is a moot question. OED8 records the following relevantterms: gool dial, (also goole, goule, goal) 'a small stream, a ditch; an outletfor water, a sluice'; gole 'a stream, channel, ditch'; gowl (also goule,

1 See M. Redin, Studies on Uncompounded Personal Names in Old English(Uppsala, 1919), pp. 96, 99, 13s; E. Björkman, Nordische Personennamen in Eng-land in alt- und frühmittel-englischer Zeit (Halle a.d.S., 1910), pp. 73 f.; E. Ekwall,English Studies XL (1959), p. 371.

2 I have not had an opportunity of visiting the place, but to judge from themap, the small lake is of the kind which is called göl in southern Sweden.

3 E. Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (Oxford,1960), s.nn. Youlton, Yawthorpe, Youlgreave.

4 Ekwall, op. cit., s. n. Jolby and A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the NorthRiding of Yorkshire (Cambridge, 1928), p. 283.

5 See Smith, op. cit., p. 283.6 Ibidem.7 On the above forms, see Jonsson, op. cit., pp. 118 ff.8 OED = The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford, 1933.

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OLD ENGLISH *GEOL, *GOLU 133

goawle) 'The throat. Also, the front of the neck'; gull (also golle, guile,gul) 'The throat, gullet; a breach or fissure made by a torrent; a gully,chasm; a channel made by a stream'; goyle dial, (also goile, goyal) 'a deeptrench, a ravine'. EDD1 registers gool (also goole, gole, goule) (nCy, Yks,Lin, Cmb, Sus) 'a whirlpool, floodgate, sluice; a pond used for washingsheep in before shearing them; a ditch; a wooden drain-pipe'; gowl (alsogool) (Sc, Nhb, Lin, Nhp) 'a hollow passage, a defile between mountains;a gap, hole'; goyle (also jw/, goyal) (Som, Dev) 'a ravine, gully, a steep,narrow valley*. Halliwell2 notes gole 'a ditch or small stream. North.Also, a whirl-pool; a flood-gate, or sluice'. MED3 adduces gole n. Also(in place names) goule, gul, '(a) A whirlpool; (b) a narrow inlet of the sea;(c) a ditch or stream'. In EPN4 we find ME goule, gole as place-nameelements. The earliest example of ME gole as a topographical term, re-corded in the dictionaries, is from Morte Arth. C1440 (? 31400) (MED),5

but this example is antedated by (Willo) del Gole in the Lancashire LaySubsidy Rolls for 1327 (membrane 5)° (Allithwaite, Lancashire) andatte Gole 1308 (Whaplode, Lincolnshire), recorded by Reaney7 fromunpublished Court Rolls.

OED and EDD agree in deriving the above terms from OFrgole, goule( < Lat gula) 'neck, throat'. Jonsson, op. cit., p. 125, is inclined to followthis view, but Ekwall8 connects gool with Swed gbl 'pond', Norw dial.gyl9 'chasm, ravine', MHG guile 'pool', MLG gole 'marsh', LG, EFrisgole, gol 'hole, pool', MDu guile 'palus, volutabrum, vorago, gurges'.Smith (EPN I, p. 206) agrees with Ekwall's opinion but reckons withinfluence from OFr goule.

It seems clear that gowl and gull in the sense 'throat' are from OFrgole, goule. The remaining terms have a topographical meaning, however,and the OFr words from Lat gula had no such primary meaning, even

1 EDD=J. Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary. London, 1898-1905.2 J. O. Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. London, 1860.3 MED=H. Kurath & S. M. Kuhn, Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor,

1952-.4 EPN=A. H. Smith, English Place-Name Elements I-II. Cambridge, 1956.5 Cf., however, La Goule 1347 (MED).6 Lay Subsidy Rolls (unpublished) preserved in the Public Record Office

(No. 130/5).7 P. H. Reaney, The Place-Names of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely (Cam-

bridge, 1943), p. 327.8 E. Ekwall, The Place-Names of Lancashire (Manchester, 1922), p. 53.9 Norw dial. gyl is more likely to be a variant of gil (< *gilia-), ee A. Torp,

Nynorsk etymologisk ordbok (Kristiania, 1919), s. v. G l.

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134 G > KRISTENSSON

if they later got a transferred sense in French dialects. The fact that gole is

attested as a topographical term in the early 14th century and that PrGerm

*gul- is well evidenced in other Germanic languages argues in favour of

a Germanic origin for the above terms (except gowl and gull). ME gole

is probably from OE *golu ( < PrGerm *gulo)} which is identical in

form with LG gaal and Du Gole- (in place-names). OE *golu would be

mod. gole, goal.

OE *geol and *golu became ME yql (/p/)2 and ggle respectively, and

these two terms with much the same meaning would easily influence and

blend with each other. Mod. gool may be the result of such a mixture.

It is actually difficult to explain gool in any other way (if OFr gole, goule

are excluded because of the difference in meaning). It is true that an

OE *gulu would be gool through ME lengthening of u in an open syllable,

but no Germanic *gulu~ (tt-stem) is evidenced. Dial, goyle (Somerset

and Devon) is difficult to judge, and had better be discussed when the

relevant material of SED3 and from the ME period is available.

Whether PrGerm *gulio(n) is represented in English cannot be de-

cided on the basis of the material now available. In north-western Eng-

land, ME gill(e) is frequent but is generally taken to be ONj»7( < *gilia-).

Smith (EPN I, p. 212) postulates OE *gyll 'a deep narrow valley* ( < Pr

Germ *gulio{n)) in south-eastern England, but the meaning of mod.

south-eastern gill 'ravine, narrow valley' makes this derivation ques-

tionable.4 It is possible that south-eastern gill, like ON gil, represents

PrGerm *gilio, *gilia-.5

To sum up, according to the material available OE seems to have pos-

sessed a *geol ( < *geul-) and a *golu ( < *gulo), which were related by

gradation. The two words most probably go back to /-extensions of the

Indo-European root *gheu- 'gape, be open', which lies behind the

Germanic topographical terms formed from *gul- 'hollow, excavation'.

No unequivocal evidence of OE *gyll ( < *gulio(n)) is found.

GILLIS KRISTENSSON

1 Cf. OE *gotu 'a water-course, a channel, a stream' (< PrGerm *gutō), ofwhich OED records the forms gote, goote, goatie, gott, gout, goit, goyt, and gooat.

2 Through shifting of stress (eo>eo), see Luick, op.cit., §§ 265, 360.3 SED = H. Orton & E. Dieth, Survey of English Dialects. Leeds, 1962-.4 Jonsson, op. cit., p. 120, points out that the sense 'ravine, narrow valley'

is not found in the Germanic words which derive from PrGerm *gul- 'hollow'.5 On this, see Jonsson, op. cit., p. 120.

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