Etymology
ME
flosche is one of a number of synonymous by-forms occurring in place-names to denote a pool of water (cp.
flash,
flask,
flush and
plash); with their onomatopoeic qualities, they are usually explained as of imitative origin and the possibility of ideophonic variation complicates the etymologies, but external input has nonetheless been suggested in this case from two main sources: (1) OFr
flache, AN
flache ‘pool of standing water, tarn’ (ult. prob. < Lat
flaccus ‘soft’, perhaps via < MDu
vlacke: see further
MED and
OED3 s.v. plash (n.1)) is sometimes suggested in the case of both
flash (
OED n.1) and ME
flosche (thus TGD, GDS,
MED). (2) Some onomastic authorities however prefer an etymology for the
fl- words which includes some Scandinavian input. A VAN n.
*flask- referring to a body of water might (very tentatively) be posited as the source of, or one of the inputs which influenced the development of, the English form
flask. So
EPNE derives the form
flask < ODan (presumably
flask(e), the modern reflex of which (Dan
flaske) is recorded in the sense ‘shallow creek’ (Nielsen) as well as ‘broad splinter, torn-off strip’), on the basis of its mainly N/NM occurrence, and accounts for the by-forms in /ʃ/ as variants by substitution of ME /ʃ/ for ON /sk/ (or by influence from Fr
flache). However it could also be argued that any sound substitution operated the other way around (to produce /sk/ from earlier /ʃ/ developed as under (1) above).
PGmc Ancestor
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(ONP )
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(2) Icel flaski, Norw flask, Dan flaske, Sw flask
OE Cognate
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
DD1bc