Obs. Also 3 bæch, bæcch(e, 9 -bach, -batch. [Origin doubtful. Possibly a dialect form of *becch, betch, answering to an OE. *bęcc, = ON. bekkr, Eng. BECK:—OTeut. *bakjo-z, cognate with OE. bęce:—OTeut. *baki-z, brook, rivulet, stream. The transference of meaning from stream to stream-valley would be parallel to the north Eng. and Lowland Sc. use of -burn, -water, in proper names, for the whole river-vale or dale.] The vale of a stream or rivulet.
a. 1000. in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., III. 380. Of ðám æcere in cærsa bæc [printed bæt], of ðám bæce in pipan.
a. 1200[?]. Notes to Layamon, III. 447. At Clent in Cu-bache [Lat. interp. In Clent, in Convalle Bovina].
c. 1205. Lay., 757. [He] ferde æfter ane bache … wes þe wei holh & long; [1250] Þe cleues weren stronge. Ibid., 2596. He bicom in a bæch þer he bale funde. Ibid., 21776. Of dalen & of dunen, & of bæcchen deopen.
c. 1305. St. Kenelm, 244, in E. E. P. (1862), 54. Coubache me clipede þis valeye & ȝut me doþ also: In Coubache þis holi bodi lay wel menie a ȝer. Ibid., 289. Vnder þe þorn of Coubage.
1393. Langland, P. Pl., C. VIII. 159. Bote blostered forth as bestes, ouer baches and hulles.
1494. Fabyan, VI. clviii. 147. At Clent in Cowbacch … whiche is to meane in Englysshe nowe vsyd, at Clent in Cow vale.
1884. J. Amphlett (in letter). The deep vale in which St. Kenelm’s chapel is situated, is now called Clatterbach (-batch). In two other stream-vales, east of it, are fields called Withey Batch, and Mare Batch.
