Denise Taylor is right to point out the possible confusions in lane and laine (What’s in a name, Argus Letters, December 13) but in fact such similarities reflect the older history of our city.
Laine comes from the Old Saxon term for an open tract of land at the base of the Downs derived from an Anglo-Saxon term for a kind of land holding.
Brighthelmstone, the official name for the city until 1810, comes from Beorthelm – Tun, the homestead of Beorthelm, no doubt a Saxon worthy.
So a confusion not as a result of ‘lethargy in the use of language’ but in our more than interesting heritage.
Professor David Stephens
Havelock Road, Brighton
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