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Re: Bamber
by Pie
6/27/2013, 8:25 AM
in reply to a message by Caprice
It's a surname - a place-name surname, from Bamber Bridge in Lancashire.
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- Caprice   +3
6/27/2013, 11:56 AM
Ah, I see. You don't know anything more about the place name?
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- Amphelise (Chrisell)   +2
6/27/2013, 1:30 PM
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamber_Bridge):The name derives from the Old English "bēam" and "brycg", which probably means "tree-trunk bridge".I'm not sure why it would be tree-trunk rather than beam, but still!
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- Anneza
6/28/2013, 1:11 AM
Beam and boom (the moving barrier) are cognates of German Baum and Dutch boom. So that's probably it. Like a hornbeam being originally a horn 'boom', so calling it a hornbeam tree is etymologically repetitive. (Clears throat. Resumes normal life.)
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- Caprice
6/27/2013, 1:51 PM
Thanks! nmnm
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