Cuckfield

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A market town and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, southern England, lying in the High Weald area
2. A small English town in the county of West Sussex, located in the Mid Sussex district near the edge of the High Weald
3. A settlement in West Sussex, England, situated within the Mid Sussex district and known as a place on the Weald's edge

Etymology: Cuckfield is a town in West Sussex, and its name is a compound of two English elements that have very little to do with each other at first glance. The first part comes from Anglo-Norman "cucu", meaning "cuckoo", and the second from Old English "feld", meaning "field". The Anglo-Norman element is notable because it points to Norman-French speech in the area: the name combines a French bird-word with a native English word for open land, so it records a period when both languages were in use locally. The sense of the whole is therefore "cuckoo field", a place name of the familiar kind that describes a landscape feature or something notable about it. The name is taken from the Key to English Place Names, which records the same elements. The surviving spelling keeps the two parts visible, so a reader can still see the bird and the field in it.