125. Derivation of the Name Heavitree (IX., p. 127, par. 108).—Very few etymologists have approached anything like a convincing solution of this puzzling place-name. Some attempts have been not only positively unscientific, but have bordered on the positively ridiculous, as in the case of a highly-learned and respected local antiquary of old, who could write of the name Heavitree—"which dull name shows it not ancient, but seems to come from sorrowful matter, which we term heavy and sad: I take it, therefore, so to be named for being the place where malefactors are ordinarily executed after the assizes and sessions." And T. Westcote has had a long train of followers.
Another suggestion is that the "Hevetrove" of Domesday means hive-tree! And one given in a once high-class topographical work:—"The name (Heavitree) is said to have been derived from its having been a place of execution, the gallows being called heavy (i.e., grievous) tree" I need illustrate this unwisdom no further.
Other folk have rejected the possible Anglo-Saxon origin of the name, and have sought to assign a Celtic or British origin to it. When they can show that Heavitree was ever known or ever written Treheavy, or Treaven, or anything like these in ancient days, then we may begin to consult our Celtic dictionaries.
My own opinion, after much consideration, is that the name is distinctly and unequivocally Anglo-Saxon, consisting of the adjectival prefix Heavi-, and the substantival suffix -tree.
It is maintained by those who favour a British origin for the name, that the suffix means other than it spells in plain English—forgetting that it would not be where it stands were it plain and ordinary Celtic. I have at hand no example of the name written in unquestionably Anglo-Saxon days. But we may fairiy assume it was pretty much the same as the Heuetruua of the Devonshire Domesday and the Hevetrove of the Exchequer—transposed respectively Hevetrowa and Hevetrove by Mr. Brooking-Rowe. I think he would have done better had he made the Exchequer name Hevetroue—the u and the v being constantly interchangeable in the later Anglo-Saxon and even in modern English times; and u is certainly intended here.
