Pitchaschen
Pitchaschen * KWY S NO3502 3
Pethchaschen 1164 x 1178 St A. Lib. 259 [which Merlswain son of Colban had granted to Kennoway church; see KWY Introduction]
Pettaschen 1164 x 1178 St A. Lib. 259 [which Merlswain son of Merlswain had granted (or confirmed) to Kennoway church; see KWY Introduction]
Petthaschen 1189 x 1195 RRS ii no. 333 [= St A. Lib. 231]
Petthaschen 1228 St A. Lib. 235 [Alexander II’s confirmation charter]
G pett + ?
The analysis of the second element of this name depends partly on what sound the sch represents: if /S/, then it is probably connected with G caise ‘steepness’, and refers to some aspect of the great gorge or den of Kennoway. Alternatively, though less likely, it may be connected with G càise ‘cheese’. The –en-ending may be part of the element, or some kind of diminutive. It can thus be compared with Cash SLO (PNF 4), which probably derives from G caise ‘steepness’, and which appears with -ss- in late thirteenth century, and alternates between -ss- and -sch- in the fifteenth century.
However, Balcaskie CBE appears as Balkaschin 1266, and here the sch must represent a sound very like /sk/, the second element being G gasg ‘tail, ridge’. The various ways in which the first consonant of the second element is represented almost certainly rules out gasg as the element in *Pitchaschen, but we are still left with the two alternative ways of reading sch. The main problem is that this name does not seem to have survived beyond the thirteenth century, so we are given no clues from later forms or pronunciation.
As *Pitchaschen is a land-holding attached to an early church, it is worth mentioning as a possible candidate for the second element a little-understood and attested OIr word caisced (m. u-stem), which ‘apparently’ means ‘alms, pittance, gift’ (DIL).
*Pitchaschen was part of the lands given by Merleswain to the church of Kennoway in the twelfth century. See KWY Introduction for more details.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2