muckefuck: (zhongkui)
muckefuck ([personal profile] muckefuck) wrote2013-01-15 10:20 am
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Toponym of the Day

Quoygrew (Westray, Orkney, UK)

Quoygrew is a Viking Age archaeological site that was continuously inhabited up until 1937. According to what I can find online (i.e. this PDF in Norwegian) the local pronunciation is /ˈkwaigroː/. The first element descends from Old Norse kví "[cattle] enclosure" and is found in other placenames such as Quoyloo and Cumlaquoy. The second element is more obscure, representing either ON grjót "rubble" or grǫf "grave".