Settlement names ending in ‑løse
In the Danish Isles west of Jutland, especially on Zealand, there are some settlement names with the ending ‑løse, e.g. Ramløse and Værløse. In Jutland, however, you cannot find a place name that, with certainty, is formed with this ending.
Many of the first elements in the løse-names are so obscure that an interpretation is either uncertain or cannot be made at all. For that reason, the løse-names must originate from the time before the Viking Age; otherwise, the words from which the names are formed would have been recognisable to a greater extent.
In the Danish settlement names, the ending ‑løse has two different origins. A small part of the names are formed with the adjective løs which means 'lack of something.' This includes Sengeløse 'the place with lack of beds' and Særløse 'the place where the inhabitants lack shifts.' The greatest part of the løse-names, however, are formed with an old substantive, the Old Danish *løsa. It is related to the word lys 'light,' and it has the meaning of 'clearing, opening, field or meadow.' Today, some of the løse-names appear with the ending ‑(e)lse, e.g. Slagelse.
Pitfalls
This overview of the most important Danish settlement names, provides a tool to place names in time. For instance it is now possible to ascertain that Hvessinge must be hundreds of years older than Glostrup although Hvessinge actually is a part of Glostup today.
However, many place names have a form in present time that does not immediately reveal from which words the name was originally formed. Some of these corrupt names look like other name types, and some have passed through independent changes. By examining the oldest written sources, it is often possible to see from which endings those names were formed originally.
Examples of this are Grænge on Lolland, which is an inge-name, and Klinting in Vestern Jutland, which is an um-name. Further to that Maglemer on Lolland is a tved-name, Gislev on Funen is originally formed from one word, and Græsted in Northern Zealand originally ended in ‑holt. In other words, a place name is never sure to consist of the words immediately obvious from the present day spelling.