May Williamson: The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border ...

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forms of west-strother and wolf-strother seem to have existed for this name. There is also
Williestrother Loch and Bog (Hwk) which may contain ME wiliZ, “willow”. Lustruther (Sdn)
is probably Gaelic.
A “lost” name is Harastrodar, 1159 (c 1320) Kelso, in Hume: “hare marsh”.
/260/ LXXII ME flasshe, flosshe,
“pool, marshy place”, indicates an OE *flæsċ, cognate with ODan flask(e). The Scots form is
floss, flosh or flass.
BERWICKSHIRE
FLASS (Wst): (75, 3 K):
Flas, 1388-9 CDS; Flass, Blaeu. MSc flas, from OE *flæsċ.
DUMFRIESSHIRE
FLOSH (Rth): (88, 14 G):
Floshe, 1569 RPC. ME flashe, floshe becomes ModSc flash, flosh. Forms in final -s(s) occur
on the eastern side of our area, as The Floss (Ask) and Flass Well (Lgf). Final -sh appears in
Dmf, in Isle of Flosh (Dlt), an island in the moss: cf Isle of Dalton. The Scandinavian form of
the word is seen in Flask Wood (Mof).
/261/ LXXIII
THE MERSE comprises all the land “lying between the Whiteadder and Tweed, extending
westward to the junction of Tweed and Teviot” (AHMC – Bwk, xviii). Spellings are: Mersce,
c 1221 (c 1320) Kelso; Merskis (gen), 1335 St And; del Merskys (gen), 1366 Rot Scac; the
Mers, c 1375 (c 1490) Brus; the Merss, c 1485 Wallace.
OE mersċ, “marsh”, MSc mers(s), (with sibilant s for OE -sċ), gives ModSc merse, “alluvial
land beside a river” (Jam, s.v.). The word has no connection with OE mearċ, “march,
boundary”, as Blaeu understood it (Blaeu, 37). The Merse (Crl) is a marshy strip at the edge
of the Solway, which has perhaps provided the definition “ground gained from the sea,
converted into moss” (Jam, s.v., 3).
/262/ LXXIV
Miscellaneous terms denoting moorland, wasteland, bog, etc.
(a)
OE mos, “marshy place, peat bog”, is found as mussa in the 12 th century monastic
charters, but no place-names incorporate it. There are sixteen names ending in
-moss, which is usually a detached element. Lochar Moss (Dmf) is Lochyrmos, c
1485 Wallace. The first word is Gaelic.