"THWAITE" AND ITS MEANINGS. Mr. B. KIRKBY, Batley, supplies the following references, in answer to "J.D." in No. 1, 144:- THWAITE is Norse or Scandinavian for a clearing of wood, and exists in THWAITES, MICKLETHWAITE. Domestic Book forms of it are MUCEBTNOIT, MUCELTUIT (MICKLETHWAITE). - "Ancient Bingley", J. Horsfall TURNER.). THWAITE - A piece of land cut off by a fence, or enclosed, a fell or meadow. Icel. pveit or pveiti. The root is found in A.S. thwitan, to chop or cut off (CHAUCER). TWAITE, CUMBERLAND dialect, to white q.v. Thwaites, in Lakeland, were originally fields or meadows fenced or cut off. In this acceptation we have thwiates or meadows on the margin of Coniston Lake. So in Icelandic, of a piece of land or paddock of land, in which language it seems to have been originally used of an outlying cottage with its paddock. The modern sense of pveitit in Icelandic is the brim of dry meadow land that gradually inclines towards bogland. From being a field name, thwaite gradually, in Cumberland and Westmorland, became applied to farms, and then to villages and parishes, as The Thwaite, near Coniston, Seathwaite, Ormthwaite, Crossthwaite, Bassenthwaite. And in this sense, it is of very frequent application in Norway and Denmark. Tvoet, Dan. tvcede; or thwaite, a surname; and the word thwaite is also found as a surname in High Furness. There are several names ending in thwaite almost identical in Norway and Lakeland:- LAKELAND. The Thwaite. Applethwaite. Birthvet. Branthwaite. Braithwaite. Seathwaite. Ruthwaite. NORWAY. Thveit, Thveilor. Eplthvet, Borthvet. Brandsthvet. Sjothvet. Rugthviet. ("Lakeland and Iceland," by REV. T. ELLWOOD.) THWAITE or THWAITES is frequently met with in the West Riding and the North of England as a surname. In West Yorkshire it is commonly pronounced Twaite: farther north it is Waite. In Westmorland to thwite or white a stick is to cut or shave it with a knife. Scholar lads or dilatory messengers are ordered to "white ther stick", i.e. to "cut their stick" or bow off and quickly. Occasionally, with the older generation in Yorkshire, a carving knife is spoken of as "t'whittle". "Whittle-gait" in Cumberland and Westmorland was not many years ago the right of food a schoolmaster or clergyman had at the table of his patrons. A form of banter for the natives of one northern village was, " _____ caris whittle ta t' tree." The explanation of which was, they had only one carving knife for the township, and for convenience, it was kept in communal fashion in the bark of a tree on the village green. Any one requiring it when it was out, was to make known his wants in these words. A form of expletive is Ord-twhite-ta, or Odtwhite-t-rops-o-tha, or Od-twhite-t-leets-o-tha, which seems to be an imprecation of a cruel meaning when we associate twhite with its old sense of hewing down, or cutting to pieces. ===========================================================================================================================