Cover not available
Part of
Colour Studies: A broad spectrum
Edited by Wendy Anderson, Carole P. Biggam, Carole Hough and Christian Kay
[Not in series 191] 2014
► pp. 307–322

Colour terms in the names of coastal and inland features

A study of four Berwickshire parishes

 | University of Glasgow, UK
 | University of Glasgow, UK
This chapter presents a study of colour terms in the names of four parishes within the historic county of Berwickshire in south-east Scotland. Out of 1,895 marked features on the first-edition six-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1856, sixty-nine (3.64%) have names containing colour terms. These fall into two groups: base names, where the feature was named directly from the colour, and derived names, where the base name has been used to name another feature. Comparison of inland and coastal names reveals different profiles, with derived names more commonly generated inland, but colour terms more salient in coastal names.
Published online: 26 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.191.20dun
References (25)
Anderson, John M. 2007. The Grammar of Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berlin, Brent, and Paul Kay. 1991 [1969]. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, 2nd ed. with a bibliography by Luisa Maffi. Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Chambers, Robert (ed.). 1835. A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, 4 vols. Glasgow: Blackie and Son.Google Scholar
CSD = Robinson, Mairi (ed.). 1985. Concise Scots Dictionary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Coates, Richard. 2009. “A Strictly Millian Approach to the Definition of the Proper Name.” Mind and Language 24 (4): 433–444. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drummond, Peter. 1992. Scottish Hill and Mountain Names: The Origin and Meaning of the Names of Scotland’s Hills and Mountains. [n.p.]: Scottish Mountaineering Trust.Google Scholar
Ekwall, Eilert. 1922. The Place-Names of Lancashire. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
EPNE = Smith, A.H. 1956. English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols (= English Place-Name Society, 25–26). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gelling, Margaret, and Ann Cole. 2000. The Landscape of Place-Names. Stamford: Shaun Tyas.Google Scholar
Hough, Carole. 2003. “Onomastic Uses of the Term ‘White’.” Nomina 26: 83–92.Google Scholar
. 2006. “Colours of the Landscape: Old English Colour Terms in Place-Names.” In Progress in Colour Studies. Volume 1. Language and Culture, ed. by C.P. Biggam, and C.J. Kay, 181–198. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. “Commonplace Place-Names.” Nomina 30: 101–120.Google Scholar
. 2012. “Celts in Scandinavian Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England: Place-Names and Language Contact Reconsidered.” In Language Contact and Development around the North Sea, ed. by Merja Stenroos, Martti Mäkinen, and Inge Særheim, 3–22. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnston, James B. 1940. The Place-Names of Berwickshire. Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Geographical Society.Google Scholar
Kay, Paul, Brent Berlin, Luisa Maffi, William Merrifield, and Richard Cook. 2009. The World Color Survey (= CSLI Lectures Notes, 159). Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Márkus, Gilbert. 2012. The Place-Names of Bute. Donington: Shaun Tyas.Google Scholar
Nicolaisen, W.F.H. 2001. Scottish Place-Names: Their Study and Significance, 2nd ed. Edinburgh: John Donald.Google Scholar
Rätsep, Kaidi. 2012. “Colour Term ‘Black’ in Estonian Place Names.” Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri: Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics 3: 129–154.Google Scholar
Reid, John. 2009. The Place Names of Falkirk and East Stirlingshire. Falkirk: Falkirk Local History Society.Google Scholar
Scott, Maggie. 2008. Scottish Place-Names. Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing.Google Scholar
Smith, A.H. 1961–1963. The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 8 vols (= English Place-Name Society, 30–37). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Simon, with Gilbert Márkus. 2006. The Place-Names of Fife Volume One West Fife Between Leven and Forth. Donington: Shaun Tyas.Google Scholar
. 2009. The Place-Names of Fife Volume Three St Andrews and the East Neuk. Donington: Shaun Tyas.Google Scholar
Watson, William J. 1926. The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood.Google Scholar
Williamson, May G. 1942. The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border Counties. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh.Available at: [URL]