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Unusually heavy winter rains have flooded the town of Chertsey, west of London, twice in the past three years. Only its old center—a raised plot on the bank of the River Thames where Anglo-Saxon monks built an abbey in the seventh century—has remained consistently dry. For most residents, the rising waters, often stinking with sewage, have come as an unwelcome surprise after centuries of a relatively dry, stable climate. They seem to have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, this telling fact about the place they call home: In Old English, Chertsey means "Ceorot's island."
The name harkens back to the Early Medieval Period, when Germanic tribes began to settle, and name, many of the places dotting maps of modern Britain. Back then, water was ubiquitous. Sediment deposits dating to this era paint a picture of overtopped riverbanks and runoff rushing down slopes. "Anglo-Saxon England was a water world," says Richard Jones, a landscape historian at the University of Leicester. He studies how early English settlers used place names, or toponyms, to encode practical information about their watery environment. For instance, Byfleet, a village in southern England, indicates a "tidal creek," or "estuary"; Buildwas, in the west, describes "land subject to rapid flooding and draining"; and Averham, in the east, a "settlement at the floods."
What does it mean for North Piddle, Shitterton, Crapstone, and Scratchy Bottom?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @03:40PM
One day an Indian boy asked his father why they have such long names? The dad answers, "Well son whenever a Indian baby is born the father would go outside and name the baby after the first thing he sees... Why do you ask Two Dogs Fucking?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @05:47PM
Oh, I learnt that joke completely different in my primary school many decades ago... here goes...
There's a tribe of Indians (Native Americans) that names their children like pp mentioned. When the three boys are 12 years old, they go for a talk with the medicine man who explains this sacred history to them.
The first boy goes into the medicine man's tent, and asks "Dear shaman, why am I called "Blue Eagle"?
The medicine man responds, "That's because when you were born, a blue eagle flew across our camp."
The second boy goes into the medicine man's tent, and asks "So tell me medicine man, why am I called "Red Snake"? I've never seen one?
The medicine man responds, "a few moons before you were born, a very rare red snake was seen just outside our camp."
The third, timid boy, stutters to the medicine man: "Um.. medicine man, can you tell me why I am called Ripped Condom?"