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Yorkshire Chess History |
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Contents: |
Origin of Word "Riding" |
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The meaning of the word “riding” is “one of three parts”, or “a third”.
The idea of dividing the domain of a regional capital town into three parts was introduced by the Danes. They applied it not only in Yorkshire to form the three Ridings, but also in Lincolnshire, where the three ridings acquired and retained specific names, Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland.
The original Scandinavian word for one of these three parts was thrithiungr (but with the letters eth and thorn instead of the two occurrences of “th”). This is fairly recognisable as meaning “three thing”. In Anglo-Saxon this was rendered “treding”, giving Nort Treding, Est Treding and West Treding as the names of the three ridings. The juxtaposition of the final “t” of the compass point and the initial “t” of “treding” resulted in one of them being dropped from pronunciation, and in spelling it was dropped from “treding”. The vowel changed over time, giving us the modern Riding.
There were of course only North, East and West Ridings, no South Riding. Had there been four parts then they’d have been Farthings (“four things”).
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Created 25/04/2012 |
Copyright © 2012 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 25/04/2012 |