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geminimad4 t1_iyetxpk wrote

Reply to comment by michael_scarn_21 in Massachusetts place names and corresponding locations in the UK by roadtrip-ne

>A town name ending in Ham meant village or estate.

Ah, so "hamlet" must be related to this?

As a word nerd, I enjoyed your post very much. Upstate NY has interesting names as well -- I learned that the town names ending in "-kill" are related to the Dutch term for "creek".

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3720-To-One t1_iyewj6c wrote

Kill Van Kull always surprised me.

When I first saw it, my first thought was what did Van Kull do that you want to murder him?!

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michael_scarn_21 t1_iyf5jee wrote

Hamlet has really entwined roots. I've copy pasted below because I'll explain it poorly if I do it myself. It's also interesting that while hamlet has partly French routes, town is obviously old English (tun) and city comes from the Latin word civitas.

From Middle English hamlet, hamelet, a borrowing from Old French hamelet, diminutive of Old French hamel, in turn diminutive of Old French ham, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *haim, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (whence English home). Equivalent to Middle English ham (“home, village”) +‎ -let (“small”).

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