The story
- Old English · derived fromfeþer
- English todayFeatherstonehaugh
From Old English feþer + stān + healh, equivalent to feather + stone + haugh. The irregular short pronunciation seems to derive from some combination of shortening of the longer pronunciation (/fɛðəstəʊnhɔː/ → /fɛstənhɔː/ → ?) and confusion with the unrelated surname Fanshawe, Fanshaw.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishfeþer all →
feather
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.