Realwords

Torpenhow Hill, England When the Saxons arrived and asked the locals what that hill was called, the Welsh replied, “Pen,” which simply means hill in Welsh. The Saxons, apparently not spotting they’d already been given the full answer, added their own word for hill: tor. So it became Torpen - literally Hill Hill. A few centuries later, the Norse turned up and repeated the exercise, adding haugr, their word for hill. Now it was effectively Torpenhaugr - Hill Hill Hill. Then the English arrived, looked at the whole thing, shrugged, and added “Hill” on the end for good measure. Thus we ended up with Torpenhow Hill: Hill Hill Hill Hill. It’s comforting to know that for over a thousand years, successive generations have been independently deciding that the previous lot hadn’t made it quite clear enough that it was, in fact, a hill. Language is magnificent. Humans… less so.🤷🏻‍♂️🤣

‘Yorkshire apostrophe’ row raises bigger question: do we even need them? dlvr.it/TBPPGn