{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}} {{about||Scandinavian usage|Torp (architecture)|other uses|}} {{notability|date=March 2020}} {{short description|Middle English word for small village}} '''''Thorp''''' is a Middle English word for a hamlet or small village.
== Etymology == The name can either come from Old Norse ''þorp'' (also ''thorp''),<ref name="Taggart2011">{{Cite book |first=Caroline |last=Taggart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lagV2dRtTpsC&pg=PA182 |title=The Book of English Place Names: How Our Towns and Villages Got Their Names |date=8 June 2011 |publisher=Ebury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4090-3498-8 |page=182}}</ref> or from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) ''þrop''.<ref name="Reaney1980">{{Cite book |last=Reaney |first=P. H. |title=The Origin of English Place-Names |date=1980 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |pages=172–174}}</ref> There are many place names in England with the suffix "-thorp" or "-thorpe". Those of Old Norse origin are to be found in Northumberland, County Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk. Those of Anglo-Saxon origin are to be found in southern England from Worcestershire to Surrey. Care must be taken to distinguish the two forms. Variations of the Anglo-Saxon suffix are "-throp", "-thrope", "-trop" and "-trip" (e.g. Adlestrop and Southrope).<ref name="Reaney1980" />
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) ''þrop'' is cognate with Low-Saxon ''trup''/''trop''/''drup''/''drop'' as in Handrup or Waltrop, Frisian ''terp'', German ''torp'' or ''dorf'' as in Düsseldorf, the 'Village of the river Düssel', and Dutch ''dorp''.<ref>"thorp." In Oxford Dictionary of English, edited by Stevenson, Angus. : Oxford University Press, 2010. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0860380 {{ISBN|978-0-19-957112-3}}</ref>
It also appears in Lorraine place-names as ''-troff'' such as Grosbliederstroff (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 Tourp, Clitourps or Saussetour (Manche, ''Sauxetorp'' end 12th century, like Saustrup, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, former ''Saxtorppe'' and ''Saxtorf'', former ''Saxtorpe'' 1538 idem, and Saxthorpe in Norfolk, England), all from Old Norse<ref>Jean Renaud, ''Vikings et noms de lieux de Normandie. Dictionnaire des toponymes d'origine scandinave en Normandie'', éditions OREP, 2009</ref> or Old English.
== Use == "Thorp" as a word appears in some role-playing games, where it is used to denote the smallest form of permanent collective habitation in the game world. Thorps in Dungeons and Dragons are defined as having between 20–80 inhabitants, while Pathfinder defines them as having 20 or fewer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/kingdom-building/settlements/|title=Settlements – d20PFSRD|website=www.d20pfsrd.com}}</ref> Hamlets are the next most populous, housing 81–400 or 21–60 people in the respective games.
== References == {{reflist}}
== See also == {{Wiktionary|thorp}} *Dorf (disambiguation) *Dorp (disambiguation) *Thorpe (disambiguation) *Thrupp (disambiguation) *Thwaite (placename element), a similarly archaic placename element
Category:Rural geography Category:Human habitats Category:Place name element etymologies Category:Names of places in the United Kingdom
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