Bank, Barrow, Borough, Burgh: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning Hill or Slope

The natural features of a region are called its topography. The word comes from Greek topos ("place").

English speakers have a long history of inventing (or borrowing from other languages) all sorts of different names for related topographical features.

Hill and slopes, for example, are known by a wide range of words in English, each with its own unique story to tell.

An alphabetically arranged presentation of such terms could begin with acclivity, bank, barrow, borough and related words. Here is an overview of their origins, forms, and histories. The dates of first appearance of the forms and meanings are from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Acclivity
Modern English acclivity comes from Latin acclivitus, from acclivis ("ascending"), a combination of ad- ("to, toward") and clivus ("slope").

Acclivity means an ascending slope of a hill (1614).

Bank
Modern English bank comes from Middle English bank (13th century) and banke (13th century), which is probably of Scandinavian origin and akin to Old Norse bakki ("bank") and Old English benc ("bench").

Bank has a host of senses, both current and obsolete, that fall into three categories pertaining to hills or slopes.

(1) A natural or artificial mound or ridge (c. 1200), such as a hill (c. 1325, formerly in general use, now in northern England dialect); an artificial earthwork, especially for military use (1535, obsolete); an underwater elevation of mud and sand (1605); and an ant hill (1667, obsolete).

(2) The rising ground bordering a lake, river, or sea, or forming the edge of a hollow (c. 1300). More broadly, a seacoast used to be called a bank (c. 1350, obsolete).

(3) A steep slope, as of a hill (1362).

Barrow
Modern English barrow comes from Middle English bergh (14th century), from Old English beorg ("hill," before 1100), which is akin to Old High German berg ("mountain"). Other early forms include beoruh (12th century) and beruh (14th century).

In general English, the Middle English word went out of use before 1400, but it was preserved during the next 100 years in specialized senses and spellings in some regions, such as southwestern England dialectal barrow. Because of the rising interest in the barrows (ancient mound graves) of southern England, the word, in its southern spelling of barrow, reentered general English in the 16th century.

Barrow has had three important meanings.

(1) A mountain or hill (c. 885, obsolete). Probably because of its Germanic origin (Old High German berg meaning "mountain"), the English word at first usually referred to a mountain, but gradually the sense shifted to lower elevations before becoming obsolete.

(2) A place-name element referring to a mound in local names for hills in England.

(3) A large mound of earth or stones over the remains of the dead, especially an ancient grave (c. 1000).

Barrow is closely related to three dialectal forms: bargh, berry, and burrow.

Bargh (pronounced barf). This is a northern England dialectal variant of barrow. Its alternative forms include barf and barugh. Like barrow, it goes back through Middle English bergh to Old English beorg. Apparently now obsolete, bargh was formerly used to denote a low ridge or hill (1823) and the steep face of a hill or a road up the slope of a hill (1674).

Berry. Formerly in general use, this word is now dialectal in England. It originated in English grammar. While the nominative of Old English beorg led to Middle English beruh and other forms that ultimately yielded barrow, the dative, beorge, led to berge, beryhe, berye, and berry. A berry is a mound, a small hill, or a barrow (1205).

Burrow. Like the other words in this group, burrow is a dialectal word that began as Old English beorg. In some parts of England, especially Cornwall, the Middle English forms of beorg, such as bergh and burgh, became boroughe (15th century) and burrow (17th century). After the word took on its dialectal form, the sense gradually changed from hill or grave mound to a heap of refuse in mining. This burrow resembles the word denoting an animal hole only in form, not in origin or meaning.

Borough
Modern English borough comes from Middle English burgh (14th century), from Old English burg ("fortified place," before 1100), which is akin to Old High German burg ("fortified place") and Old English beorg ("hill").

The forms burrough (16th century) and borough (16th century) appeared at about the same time. During the 16th to 18th centuries, the main form was burrough, but it was supplanted by borough.

Except as a variant spelling of burrow, itself a dialectal variant of barrow, the word borough has never meant "hill." However, in its Old English original form, the word denoted a special type of hill.

In ancient and medieval times, population centers were commonly built at locations that had natural defenses, especially heights. In fact, during the Old English period, the principal meaning of the word wall was "a natural rampart, hill, cliff" that was used for defensive purposes at towns, castles, and fortresses (Oxford English Dictionary, "wall").

Linguistically, Old English burg ("fortified place") and beorg ("hill") are said to be "akin." Historically, the connection between the two entities is even closer, the hill being an integral component in the town's location and fortification.

Borough has meant a fortress or castle (c. 800, obsolete); a medieval fortified town (c. 893, obsolete or historical); and a modern town in England (c. 1380) or, later, any of various political units in the United States.

Three words closely related to borough share its "fortified hill" origin in Old English burg: burg, burgh, and bury.

Burg. After Old English burg and Middle English burgh evolved into borough with its modern meaning of town, historians reverted to the use of the Old English form burg to denote the historical senses of the word: an ancient or medieval fortress or walled town (1753).

Burgh. During the 16th century, while Middle English burgh changed to borough in England, the form in Scotland, where it came to mean an incorporated town, settled on burgh (pronounced, like borough, with a long o in the second syllable).

Bury. Old English burg and its variant spelling burh had the dative forms biri, berie, and buri, which were sometimes used for nominative purposes, especially in place-names. Thus evolved the widespread use of the later forms Bury and -bury in place-names. For example, Old English Cantwaraburh became Canterbury.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.