Six Mile Bottom

Is it the same in other countries whose language is not English, that place names are often funny, strange or just plain weird? A quick gallop through an atlas or road map will reveal all sorts of names of villages and towns that bring a a puzzled eyebrow or smile to your face, Little Peover, the River Piddle, Oozewood, Pudding Lane and Puddingpie Lane, Ramsbottom… and that’s just some I remember. There used to be a signpost somewhere in Lincolnshire which said “To: Mavis Enderby and Old Bollingbroke →” Some wit had written a little slogan underneath so the sign then read “To: Mavis Enderby and Old Bollingbroke, a son.”

Some years ago Douglas Adams, famous for writing ‘The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ wrote a book called ‘The Meaning of Liff’, together with John Lloyd, published in 1983, where  he ascribed fictitious meanings to place names. John Lloyd has now published a second volume; sadly Douglas Adams died in 2001, but Lloyd carries on the humorous tradition with ‘Afterliff’, available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Afterliff-ebook/dp/B00D0UYUSU

• Anglesey n. – Hypothetical object at which a lazy eye is looking.
• Badlesmeare n. – One who dishonestly ticks the ‘I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions’ box.
• Caterham n. – An overwhelming desire to use the Pope’s hat as an oven glove.
• Clavering ptcpl v. – Pretending to text when alone and feeling vulnerable in public.
• Eworthy adj. – Of a person: worth emailing but not worth phoning or meeting.
• Kanumbra n. – The sense that someone is standing behind you.
• Ljubljana interj.- What people say to the dentist on the way out.
• Loughborough n. – The false gusto with which children eat vegetables in adverts.
• Sorrento n. – The thing that goes round and round as a YouTube video loads.
• Uralla n. – A towel used as a bathmat.

Liff, by the way, in case you were wondering, is a small hamlet in Scotland.