Etymology: Origin uncertain.This word, attested only in manuscripts of west-midland provenance, has often been discussed in relation to a group of Shropshire place names which appear to contain an element of similar form and sense—Clee St. Margaret (1086 as Cleie ), Cleestanton (1086 as Clee ), Cleobury Mortimer (1086 as Claiberie , Cleberie ), and Cleobury North (1086 as Cleberie )—and probably reflect the name of two massifs in that county now known as the Clee Hills (first recorded in a 7th-cent. Latin charter, in circa montem qui dicitur Clie ). The place names and the present word are discussed in full in M. Gelling Place-Names Shropshire I. (1990) 82–8. The word that appears to underlie both the place names and the quotations below has been explained as a variant of cleeve n. (compare the forms cleof , cleove ) with loss of the final consonant, although this loss would be difficult to explain. Quot. a13002 has alternatively been interpreted as showing a different word, clee n., perhaps as a term for claw- or hook-shaped agricultural instrument (e.g. a reaping hook). Attempts have been made to see the present word as a showing application of clee n. to claw-shaped hills, although the topography of the Shropshire hills does not support this suggestion, which is also phonologically problematic. According to another theory, the word and the associated place names show a borrowing of an unrecorded Old Welsh reflex of classical Latin clīvus slope, hill (see clivose adj.), although corroborating evidence for this does not appear to exist either in Old English or in other place names of that period. All of these possibilities are rejected by Gelling in favour of derivation from an unrecorded Old English noun *clēo meaning ‘ball-shaped massif’, related to Old English clīewen , clēowen , clēowe ball (see clew n.).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
n.a1300