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Colour terms in the names of coastal and inland features

A study of four Berwickshire parishes
  • Leonie Mhari and Carole Hough
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Colour Studies
This chapter is in the book Colour Studies

Abstract

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.

Abstract

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.

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