''Thorp'' is a Middle English word for a hamlet or small village.

Etymology

The name can either come from Old Norse ''þorp'' (also ''thorp''), or from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) ''þrop''. There are many place names in England with the

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

"-thorp" or "-thorpe". Those of Old Norse origin are to be found in Northumberland, County Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. Those of Anglo-Saxon origin are to be found in southern England from Worcestershire to

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. Care must be taken to distinguish the two forms. Variations of the Anglo-Saxon suffix are "-throp", "-thrope", "-trop" and "-trip" (e.g.

Adlestrop Adlestrop () is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, east of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England, on the county boundary with Oxfordshire. The River Evenlode forms the southwest boundary of the parish. The village is on a strea ...

and

Southrope Southrope is a hamlet in the civil parish of Herriard, Hampshire. It has one pub, named the Fur and Feathers. The hamlet was once considered a part of the civil parish Bentworth, until the late 19th century. Its nearest town is Alton, which lies ...

). Old English (Anglo-Saxon) ''þrop'' is cognate with Low-Saxon ''trup''/''trop''/''drup''/''drop'' as in

Handrup Handrup is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and t ...

Waltrop Waltrop is a town in the district of Recklinghausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the Datteln-Hamm Canal, approximately 15 km east of Recklinghausen and 15 km north-west of Dortmund. Division of the town The tow ...

, Frisian '' terp'', German ''torp'' or ''dorf'' as in Düsseldorf, the 'Village of the river Düssel', and Dutch ''dorp''. It also appears in Lorraine place-names as ''-troff'' such as

Grosbliederstroff Grosbliederstroff () is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It borders the German towns of Saarbrücken (180,000 inhabitants) and Kleinblittersdorf. Grosbliederstroff is connected to Kleinblittersdorf by a b ...

(France) in front of Kleinblittersdorf (Germany). It sometimes occurs in Normandy as Torp(s) / Tourp(s) / ''-tourp'' or even ''-tour'', for instance :

le Torp-Mesnil Le Torp-Mesnil is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A farming village situated in the Pays de Caux, some north of Rouen at the junction of the D55, D25 and the D106 roads. Populati ...

, le Tourp,

Clitourps Clitourps () is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France. See also *Communes of the Manche department The following is a list of the 446 communes of the Manche department of France. The communes cooperate in the f ...

or Saussetour (Manche, ''Sauxetorp'' end 12th century, like

Saustrup Saustrup ( da, Savstrup) is a municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous c ...

, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, former ''Saxtorppe'' and ''Saxtorf'', former ''Saxtorpe'' 1538 idem, and

Saxthorpe Saxthorpe is a village in Norfolk, England. The village is west south west of Cromer and north north west of Norwich. The village lies south west of the town of Holt. It is in the civil parish of Corpusty and Saxthorpe. The village is passed ...

in Norfolk, England), all from Old Norse or Old English.

Use

Thorps often appear in roleplaying games as the smallest form of permanent habitation. Thorps in Dungeons and Dragons are defined as having between 20-80 people while those in Pathfinder have 20 or fewer. Hamlets, in these games, are the next most populous having 81-400 or 21-60 people in the respective games.

Etymology

Use

References

See also