Bert Heyvaert Posted 1 April , 2005 Share Posted 1 April , 2005 Dear Pals, especially Belgian ones, We have all heard of the 'Pilkem Ridge', but I was wondering where the actual name 'Pilckem' comes from. Does anyone knows of the roots of this placename? regards, Bert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 1 April , 2005 Share Posted 1 April , 2005 Bert, I won't go into technical details and bore English speaking Forum members with the etymology and morphology of our Flemish village names. Just this ... - All Flemish village names ending on -em, -hem, g(h)em, ing(h)em and ing(h)e have one thing in common : the first element is almost always a name, of some 5th or 6th century farmer or large landowner, and the last element 'hem' means : house, settlement (cp. English home). Since most of these village names in the course of the centuries have been seriously contracted, and since these old names are no longer in use, these modern names are no longer transparent. But a name like 'Alvering(h)em' (which shows its origin better than most other names, could be 'translated' as : the settlement (= hem) of those who belonged to (= ing) of farmer Alver. - Does this explanation go for 'Pilkem' too ? Probably. Unfortunately there are not many older spelling varieties of the name of that hamlet (Pelecken 1171, Pelechem 1173, Pelecheem 1267 and a few more), and these are pretty 'young', since the hamlet itself may be centuries older than these names. However there are some exceptions to this pattern name of "farmer + settlement". As far as I know only a handful in our province West-Flanders (Pittem, Keiem, Beernem..). In these names the first element does not contain a person's name, but a geographical (landscape) feature. Is Pilkem one of this subcategory ? Possible, but I'm afraid there is no way to find out. Conclusion : Pilkem is an example of a wellknown name category, second element meaning "settlement", and the first element a name (of a farmer). Though there is (statistically) a small chance that this first element is some geographical feature instead. I'm afraid you are hardly nearer to an answer... Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 1 April , 2005 Share Posted 1 April , 2005 Aurel I'm always interested in the similarity between the north European languages. Where, in this case, "ham" in English has the same meaning as "hem " in Flemish (Dutch?) as a settlement - as in, say, Nottingham. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Heyvaert Posted 1 April , 2005 Author Share Posted 1 April , 2005 Thanks Aurel, You pretty much answered my question! Bert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Dunlop Posted 1 April , 2005 Share Posted 1 April , 2005 And the answer was anything but boring. Thanks very much Aurel. Much appreciated. Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zijde26 Posted 1 April , 2005 Share Posted 1 April , 2005 To Aurel, Splendid. I was delighted by your explanation. Gilbert Deraedt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred van Woerkom Posted 2 April , 2005 Share Posted 2 April , 2005 Thanks Aurel, Most informative! All the best, Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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