-bury

The story

1. Old English · inherited frombyriġ
2. English today-bury

From Old English byriġ, the dative case of burg (“fortified place”) (whence borough); doublet of -borough and -burg. Due to the collapse of the case system between Old and Middle English, many placenames retain a fossilized dative form, as places would most commonly have been invoked in the dative (after a preposition in, at, to etc.).

Words from the same roots