English
Puddletown
Renamed from Piddletown in the 1920s because of association with the word piddle; it is actually named after the River Piddle + town, earlier forms were Pideleton (1212) and Pitretone (Domesday Book 1086).
Proto-Celtic *dūnom ‘stronghold, rampart’
Proto-Germanic *tūną ‘fence, enclosure’
Proto-West Germanic *tūn ‘fence’
Old English tūn ‘an enclosed piece of ground’
Middle English toun ‘a town or city’
English town
The story
Renamed from Piddletown in the 1920s because of association with the word piddle; it is actually named after the River Piddle + town, earlier forms were Pideleton (1212) and Pitretone (Domesday Book 1086). Other places on the River Piddle, Piddlehinton and Piddletrenthide, were apparently not renamed.
Today it means
name A village and civil parish (served by the Puddletown Area Parish Council (Group)) in Dorset, England (OS grid ref SY7594).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Puddletown