"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Showing posts with label dell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dell. Show all posts

Thursday, 23 July 2009

Dingles and dells

 
Here are some lovely words for certain country features and among my favourites are dingle and dell. Both mean a small wooded hollow. Like the word "dale", the word "dell" is derived from the Old English language dæl. The word dingle was used as long ago as 1240 but its origins are unknown, it is possibly a dialect word.

As the combination Dingle Dell the two words can be found as a house or cottage name quite often.