Talk:-ham

RFV discussion: March 2022

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-ham

I suspect this was never productive in Modern English! Not sure it was a suffix before that, either. Equinox ◑ 01:10, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

• Was -le productive in Modern English? DCDuring (talk) 03:05, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

The only modern coining I can think of is Newham (the London borough), but even there, there is a much older example (in Northumberland). Generally, the use of -ham comes from Old English hamm, so we probably can do without this as a suffix. But I do use -ton, especially for American place name coinings. DonnanZ (talk) 10:10, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

There are several places called Birmingham in various countries, not just the two famous ones, and the same goes for Nottingham, Buckingham, Newham and Oldham and how else would -ham be described other than a suffix? I must admit to being highly puzzled as to why this was even put to RFV. If you want a completely original modern coinage of a place name ending -ham I’ve found the following (and no doubt there are others) Winterham. Overlordnat1 (talk) 11:24, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

I came across "Wintersham, in the isle of Oxney", but that turned out to be Wittersham. Oh well, never mind. I already had a problem this morning where Arkley was misspelt as "Ankley". DonnanZ (talk) 12:31, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

• I didn't think productivity was a requirement for inclusion. If it does not, clearly widespread use applies. DCDuring (talk) 17:16, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

• RFV-passed per norm. We keep both productive and nonproductive affixes. ·~ dictátor·mundꟾ 11:30, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

Huh? Let's see if anyone uses it. DonnanZ (talk) 09:12, 10 March 2022 (UTC)