Prathouse
Prathouse IKG S NT1438731 1 394 120m
subtus album Pratres 1287 x 1299 Dunf. Reg. no. 592 [see DFL Introduction]
ad pedem dicti albi Pratres 1287 x 1299 Dunf. Reg. no. 592 [see DFL Introduction]
Prathous 1466 Stephen 1921, 92 [Prathouse, Duloch and Brounsyde are disponed to various Inverkeithing burgesses by James Scrymgeour]
Prateris (now) Prathouse 1600 Reg. of Deeds lxxiv 3 March [quoted Stephen 1921, 45]
Prethous 1642 Gordon MS Fife [unclear script, may be Prathous]
Prathous 1654 Blaeu (Pont) West Fife
Prekhous 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
North Pratis 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5
South Pratis 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5
Preatice 1756 RHP3800 [‘part of the Lands of Preatice’]
Pratis 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Prathouse 1828 SGF
This is a puzzling name, which might go back to a loan-word into Pictish, G or Sc (perhaps via Old French) from Latin prat-um ‘meadow’ (which is found in its more usual Old French form pré(e) in the west Fife name Bouprie ABO). There was at least one Old French derivative, pratois ‘someone who owned a meadow’,[157] which retained the early Latin vowel and consonant intact.
Whatever its derivation, it shares it with Pratis LAR (PNF 2), which has almost identical early forms going back to the thirteenth century. The second element house is a late medieval re-interpretation of the –es ending as Sc house.
Note nearby Praetorhill DFL, a name which may derive from Prathouse. It is attached to a small settlement shown on OS 6 inch 1st edn at NT133875; also Praetorhill Quarry (Limestone). It had disappeared by 1959, leaving only the name Praetorhill Plantation to the north (OS 2.5 inch). Both plantation and name entirely disappeared under the M90. The OS Name Book 131, 54 gives no clue as to the origin of the name, saying only that it was a farm that had been annexed to South Fod DFL.
/ˈpratəs/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1