Torpenhow Hill (locally/trəˈpɛnə/,trə-PEN-ə) is claimed to be the name of a hill near the village ofTorpenhow inCumbria, England, a name that istautological. According to an analysis by linguistDarryl Francis and locals, there is no landform formally known as Torpenhow Hill there, either officially or locally,[1] which would make the term an example of aghost word.
A.D. Mills in hisDictionary of English Place-Names interprets the name as "Ridge of the hill with a rocky peak", giving its etymology as Old Englishtorr, Celtic *penn, and Old Englishhoh, each of which mean 'hill'.[2] Thus, the name 'Torpenhow Hill' could be interpreted as: hill-hill-hill Hill.
In 1688, Thomas Denton stated that Torpenhow Hall and church stand on a 'rising topped hill', which he assumed might have been the source of the name of the village.[3][4] Denton apparently exaggerated the example to a "Torpenhow Hill", which would quadruple the "hill" element, but the existence of a toponym "Torpenhow Hill" is not substantiated.[1]
In 1884, G.L. Fenton proposed the name as an example of "quadruple redundancy" intautological placename etymologies, i.e. that all four elements of the name might mean "hill".[5]It was used as a convenient example for the nature ofloanword adoption by Thomas Comber in c. 1880.[6]