Note 11 — Chapter VIII · Welsh Cave Legends

The oldest spellings known of this name occur in manuscript A of the Annales Cambriæ and in the Book of Ỻan Dâv as Elized and Elised, doubtless pronounced Elisseđ until it became, by dropping the final dental, Elisse. This in time lost its identity by assimilation with the English name Ellis. Thus, for example, in Wynne’s edition of Powell’s Caradog of Ỻancarfan’s History of Wales (London, 1774), pp. 22, 24, Elised is reduced to Elis. In the matter of dropping the đ compare our Dewi, ‘St. David,’ for Dewiđ, for an instance of which see Duffus Hardy’s Descriptive Catalogue, i. 119. The form Eliseg with a final g has no foundation in fact. Can the English name Ellis be itself derived from Eliseđ? ↑