Etymology

Stonehenge

S1T1O1N1E1H4E1N1G2E1

Today it means: An ancient group of standing stones on Salisbury Plain in Amesbury parish, Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref SU1242). Full definition →

Middle English Stonhenge
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromStonhenge
  2. English todayStonehenge

Inherited from Middle English Stonhenge, from ston (“stone”) + henge (“hinge”) or hengen ("hanging", but only attested as "imprisonment"). More at Stonehenge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia The failure of /ɛnd͡ʒ/ to regularly raise to /ɪnd͡ʒ/, as in hinge, singe < Middle English henge, sengen, is probably due to the influence of the local dialect; compare the forms /ɛnd͡ʒ/, /sɛnd͡ʒ/ "hinge, singe" attested for the early 20th-century dialect of Pewsey, Wiltshire, approximately 18.5 kilometres (11.5 miles) from Stonehenge.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.