Bittern - OE raredumle, pur

Old English raredumle, which is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon glossaries, appears to parallel modern German for Botaurus stellaris: rohrdommel, thereby suggesting a common Germanic ancestor. It is debatable though whether the rohr prefix in German relaes to rohr meaning ‘pipe, reed, cane’, or röhren ‘to bellow’ (from the root of which verb English ‘roar’ derives too). Both make sense. The name, at any rate, does not appear in place-names. Pur does. This name has been taken as an old word for dunlin, on the basis that ‘purre’ has been a regional term for that species in more recent time. Most locations at which pur occurs in place-names however, would not suit dunlin at all, nor any other coastal wading species and, in my view, disqualifies dunlin as a possibility. Pur, pronounced with a long ‘oo’ vowel, also sounds like an excellent mimicking of the bittern’s distinctive, blow-over-a-glass-bottle song. Both names draw attention to the way in which the sound of bitterns must have been the defining aspect of reed-bed, marshy places (and there was a lot more of that habitat around in previous centuries). Even in the 18th century, Daniel Defoe, on his tour around Britain, was so struck by the ‘uncouth Music of the Bittern … so loud that it is heard two or three Miles Distance, that he identified it as a notable point of interest on his journey through the Fen region of England. Moreover, a field name such as Purfenne (see below) seems well-suited to the bittern.

It has also been argued (Carole Hough) that place-names including the Old English word bemere ‘trumpeter, but potentially an early form of Modern English ‘boomer’) might also refer to bitterns, on the basis that such meanings traditionally suggested for these names, such as ‘valley of the trumpeters’ or ‘clearing of the trumpeter’ don’t make much sense in a literal sense, but are more convincing if we read bemere as a description of a bird with a booming/trumpeting call such as the bittern. Place-names relating to this argument, therefore, are included below.

Bemerehill (lost, Wilts)

Bemerherste (lost, Lon)

Bemerhills (Wilts)

Bemerton (Wilts)

Bemersley (Staffs)

Purbeck (Dor)

Purleigh (Esx)

Purley (Berks)

Field names: Purfenne (lost, Cambs).

Bitterns appear in charters relating to the following places: Godmersham, Kent (9th cen.), Rollington, historic, near Wilton, Wilts (10th cen.). If Hough is correct that OE bemere was used as a vernacular/regional term for the bittern, then charters relating to Downton, Wilts (10th cen.) are also relevant.

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Watt, Cambridge Dictionary; Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary; EPNS Place-Names of Cambridge; www.langscape.org.uk; esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk; Carole Hough, ‘Place-Name Evidence for Old English Bird-Names’, Journal of the English Place-Name Society, 30 (1997-98), 60-76.