Salisbury Road SP2, Sarum Close SP2

Castle Street, Salisbury

The Latin name for Salisbury (or for what is now Old Sarum) was Sorviodunum.

The dunum element seems relatively clear – dunum means fort ¹ or stronghold.

However, according to Adrian Room’s ‘Placenames of the World’,

the meaning of Sorvio is obscure. The Anglo-Saxons apparently associated it with their word searu, “art”, “skill”, “armour” and substituted their equivalent burh for the Celtic -dunum‘ ²

According to the ‘Key to English Place-Names’ (which is a database maintained at the Institute for Name-Studies at The University of Nottingham), in 552, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

reports a battle in 552 between the Britons and Saxons at Searoburgh, where the first element shows influence of OE searu, ‘cunning device, trick, etc’.³

Salisbury was then Sarisberie in the Domesday book⁴, and the r was ‘Normanized’ to an l.

Alternatively to the view that Sorvioi is drived from ’skill’ or ‘trick’, www.romanmap.com says that

We are almost certainly dealing with the old name of the East Avon above Salisbury. Under Severn p.360, Ekwall considers the forest name Savernake SU2266 as potentially derived from the old name for the Bedwyn or the eastern arm of the East Avon

There seems to be consensus that Sarum is a possibly inaccurate medieval Latin abbreviation for Salisbury ^{5 6}.

‘Sarum’ also refers to the ‘Sarum Rite’, or ‘Sarum Use’ which is, as I understand it, a set of procedures for the running of the rituals of the Church, including Orders of Service, and a calendar. The Sarum Rite was developed by St Osmond , who was Bishop of Salisbury in 1078.

Update: I don’t know where the text comes from, but this website suggests another derivation for the first element of sorviodunum

Old Sarum, situated about a mile and a half north of Salisbury, is generally regarded as the Sorbiodunum of the Romans. Its name, derived from the Celtic words sorbio, ?dry,? and dun, ?a city or fortress,? leads to the conclusion that it was a British post

This derivation is supported in the 1825 ‘The natural and artificial wonders of the United Kingdom’ by J. Goldsmith, who says that

They denominated the place Sorbio dunum which nearly resembles the Celtic word Sorfidun signifying dry hill.⁷

Visiting Salisbury?

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

1. Old-Sarum / Sorviodunum. Encyclopédie Marikavel des noms de lieux. [↩]
2. ‘Placenames of the World’, Adrian Room, Published by McFarland in 2003 ISBN:0786418141 URL:Placenames of the World: Origins and … – Google Book Search [↩]
3. Place Details [↩]
4. The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details [↩]
5. Salisbury – The word ‘Sarum’ | British History Online [↩]
6. Wiltshire County Council – Wiltshire Community History Get Wiltshire History Question Information [↩]
7. The natural and artificial wonders of the United Kingdom, by J. Goldsmith By Richard Phillips [↩]