Espan
Espan (also Eschpan , Eschbann ) is a southern German (Bavarian-Alemannic-Middle Franconian) field name and originally designates a free, unfenced piece of pastureland that belongs to the municipality and is mostly located near the village. The term appears in the German legal dictionary for the first time from 1157.
The origin of the word is not known for certain. Joseph Schnetz separates the word into 'E' and 'span'. 'E' stands for Ewe and means something like (common) law in connection with the community, 'span' stands for tight span and refers to tying up the draft animals so that they cannot cause damage to the neighboring cultivated land by grazing.
See also: Anger , Allmende , Hutanger
literature
- Joseph Schnetz: The field name Espan. In: Zeitung für Ortsnameforschung 1,2, pp. 122-131
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schnetz: The field name Espan.