In the southern part of England there are areas where the rock underlying most of the hills is white and chalky. The famous “white cliffs of Dover” are the iconic example, but many hills and meadows around those parts are just as white underneath. This has been known to the residents since prehistoric times, and as a result a little-known and seldom-practiced art came into being there. The art is carving “hill figures”, which are giant patterns carved into a hillside, deep enough to expose the white rock underneath. There are a few of these that are extremely old, and the practice has persisted to this day.
Some of the hill figures are in the shape of people, but for some reason there are more of them that represent horses. There’s the “Uffington White Horse,” which is famous enough that the municipal district of Uffington is called the “Vale of the White Horse.” More recently, the Westbury White Horse was (probably) created in the 1700s and restored just a few years ago. It’s 180 feet tall and 170 feet wide, and is used as the symbol of the town of Westbury.
Now, you might be wondering if there’s a particular profession (or at least hobby) associated with creating these hill figures. And there is — but it only refers to representations of horses, not anything else. Carving white horses into the sides of hills in southern England is called “leucipottomy.” The most recent example of leucipottomy was in 1999 when the town of Devizes created their own hillside horse.
The word “leucipottomy” is nowhere near as old as the carvings — it first appeared in a book published in 1949: “White Horses and other Hill Figures.” The author was Morris Marples, and he apparently coined the term himself for use in his book. However, he didn’t do a particularly good job, etymologically speaking. The word seems to have been created out of three Greek roots: “leuci” (white), “hippo” (horse), and “-tomy.” His mistake was in that last bit; “-tomy” doesn’t mean carving; it means removing, as in “appendectomy.” So the word’s etymological meaning is not “carving white horses” but “removing white horses.” Also he got the “p” and the “t”s mixed up; there should be two “p”s and only one “t” instead of the reverse.
Nevertheless, the word was carved into English usage with the publication of Marples’ book, and it doesn’t look like anybody is going to fix it — to, perhaps, “leucohippoglyphy,” which would clearly be MUCH better!
