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Title: The River-Names of Europe

Author: Robert Ferguson

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Language: English

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THE
RIVER-NAMES
OF
EUROPE.

BY ROBERT FERGUSON.

PREFACE.

The object of the present work is to arrange and explain the names of European Rivers on a more comprehensive principle than has hitherto been attempted in England, or, to the best of my belief, in Germany.

I am conscious that, like every other work of the same sort, it must necessarily, and without thereby impugning its general system, be subject to correction in many points of detail. And in particular, that some of its opinions might be modified or altered by a more exact knowledge of the characteristics of the various rivers than can possibly in all cases come within the scope of individual research.

Among the writers to whom I am most indebted is Ernst Förstemann, who, in the second volume of his Altdeutsches Namenbuch, (the first consisting of the names of persons), has collected, explained, and where possible, identified, the ancient names of places in Germany. The dates affixed to most of the German rivers are taken from this work, and refer to the earliest mention of the name in charters or elsewhere.

I also refer here, because I find that I have not, as usual, given the titles elsewhere, to Mr. R. S. Charnock's "Local Etymology," and to the work of Gluck, entitled "Die bei C. Julius Cæsar vorkommende Keltische namen."

ROBERT FERGUSON.

[1]

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

The first wave of Asian immigration that swept over Europe gave names to the great features of nature, such as the rivers, long before the wandering tribes that composed it settled down into fixed habitations, and gave names to their dwellings and their lands. The names thus given at the outset may be taken therefore to contain some of the most ancient forms of the Indo-European speech. And once given, they have in many, if not in most cases remained to the present day, for nothing affords such strong resistance to change as the name of a river. The smaller streams, variously called in England and Scotland brooks, becks, or burns, whose course extended but for a few miles, and whose shores were portioned out among but a few settlers, readily yielded up their[2] ancient names at the bidding of their new masters. But the river that flowed past, coming they knew not whence, and going they knew not whither—upon whose shores might be hundreds of settlers as well as themselves, and all as much entitled to give it a name as they—was naturally, as a matter of common convenience, allowed to retain its original appellation.

Nevertheless, it might happen that a river such as the Danube, which runs more than a thousand miles as the crow flies—being divided between two great and perfectly distinct races, might, as it passed through the two different countries, be called by two different names. So we find that while in its upper part it was called the Danube, in its lower part it was known as the Ister—the former, says Zeuss (Die Deutschen), being its Celtic, and the latter its Thracian name. So the Saone also was anciently known both as the Arar and the Sauconna—the latter, according to Zeuss, being its[3] Celtic name. And Latham, (Tacitus, Germania,) makes a similar suggestion respecting the Rhine—"It is not likely that the Batavians of Holland, and the Helvetians of Switzerland, gave the same name to the very different parts of their common river." It does not follow then as a matter of course—though we must accept it as the general rule—that the name by which a river is known at the present day, when it happens to be different from that recorded in history, is in all cases the less ancient of the two. There might originally have been two names, one of which has been preserved in history, and the other retained in modern use.

It is also to be observed, that in the case of one race coming after another—say Germans or Slaves after Celts—while the newcomers retained the old names, they yet often added a word of their own signifying water or river. The result is that many names are compounded of two words of different languages, and in not a few cases both signifying water.[4]

The names thus given at the outset were of the utmost simplicity, rarely, if ever, containing a compound idea. They were indeed for the most part simple appellatives, being most commonly nothing more than words signifying water. But these words, once established as names, entered into a different category. The words might perish, but the names endured. The words might change, but the names did not follow their changes. Inasmuch as they were both subject to the same influences, they would most probably in the main be similarly affected by them. But inasmuch as the names were independent of the language, they would not be regulated in their changes by it. Moreover, in their case a fresh element came into operation, for, being frequently adopted by races speaking a different language, they became subject to the special phonetic tendencies of the new tongue. The result is that many names, which probably contained originally the same word, appear in a variety of different[5] forms. The most important phonetic modifications I take to be those of the kind referred to in the next chapter.

There is no branch of philological enquiry which demands a wider range than that of the origin of the names of rivers. All trace of a name may be lost in the language in which it was given—we may have to seek for its likeness through the whole Indo-European family—and perhaps not find it till we come at last to the parent Sanscrit. Thus the name of the Humber is probably of Celtic origin, but the only cognate words that we find are the Lat. imber and the Gr. ὄμβρος, till we come to the Sansc. ambu, water. Celtic also probably are the names of the Hodder and the Otter, but the words most nearly cognate are the Gr. ὕδωρ and the Lith. audra, (fluctus), till we come to the Sansc. ud, water.

Again, there are others on which we can find nothing whatever to throw light till we come to the Sanscrit. Such are the[6] Drave and the Trave, for which Bopp proposes Sansc. dravas, flowing. And the Arve in Savoy, which I cannot explain till I come to the Sansc. arb or arv, to ravage or destroy, cognate with Lat. orbo, Eng. orphan, &c. And—far as we have to seek for it—how true the word is, when found, to the character of that devastating stream; and how it will come home to the frequenters of the vale of Chamouni, who well remember how, within the last few years, its pretty home-steads were rendered desolate, and their ruined tenants driven out like "orphans" into the world! With such fury does this stream, when swollen by the melted snows, cast its waters into the Rhone, that it seems to drive back the latter river into the lake from whence it issues. And Bullet relates that on one occasion in 1572, the mills of Geneva driven by the current of the Rhone were made for some hours to revolve in the opposite direction, and to grind their corn backwards.[7]

Thus then, though we may take it that the prevailing element in the river-names of Europe is the Celtic, we must turn for assistance to all the languages that are cognate. And, for the double reason of their great antiquity and their great simplicity, we shall often find that the nearer we come to the fountain-head, the clearer and the more distinct will be the derivation. It will be seen also throughout the whole of these pages that, in examining the names of rivers, we must take not only a wide range of philological enquiry, but also an extensive comparison of these names one with another.

The first step in the investigation is of course to ascertain, whenever it is possible, the most ancient forms in which these names are found. We should scarcely suspect a relationship between our Itchen and the French Ionne, if we did not know that the ancient name of the one was Icene, and of the other Icauna. Nor would we suppose that the Rodden of Shropshire was identical[8] with the French Rhone, did we not know that the original name of the latter was the Rhodănus.

In this, as in most other departments of philology, the industry of the Germans has been the most conspicuous. And Ernst Förstemann in particular, who has extracted and collated the ancient names of places in Germany up to the 12th cent., has furnished a store of the most valuable materials.

And yet after all there will be occasions on which all the resources of philology will be unavailing. Then we can but gather together the members of the family and wait till science shall reveal us something of their parentage. Thus the Alme that wanders among the pleasant meads of Devon—the Alm that flows by the quaint dwellings of the thrifty Dutch—the Alma that courses through the dark pine forests of the far North—the Almo that waters the sacred vale of Egeria—and the Alma, whose name brings sorrow and pride to many an English[9] household—all contain one wide-spread and forgotten word, at the meaning of which we can but darkly guess.

[10]

CHAPTER II.

ON THE ENDINGS a, en, er, es, et, el.

We find that while there are many names of rivers which contain nothing more than the simple root from which they are derived, as the Cam, the Rhine, the Elbe, the Don, &c., there are others which contain the same root with various endings, of which the principal are a, en, er, es, et, el. Thus the Roth in Germany, contains a simple root; the Roth(a), Roth(er), and Rodd(en) in England, and the Röt(el) in Germany, contain the same with four different endings. The German Ise shows a simple root, and the Germ. Is(ar), Is(en), Eng. Is(is), Dutch Yss(el), Russ. Iss(et), shew the same with five different endings. So we have in England the Tame, the Tam(ar), and the Tham(es), &c. The question is—what is the value and meaning of these various additions?[11]

With respect to the ending in a, found in some English rivers, there is reason to think that it is a word signifying water—the Old Norse â, Goth. ahva, Lat. aqua, &c. So that the a in Rotha may be the same as the a in the Norwegian Beina and the Swedish Tornea—as the au in the Germ. Donau (Danube)—and as the ava in the Moldava of Austrian Poland.

Others of these endings have by different writers been supposed to be also words signifying water. Thus Donaldson (Varronianus), takes the ending es to have that meaning. And Förstemann, though more cautiously, makes the same suggestion for the termination ar or er. "I allow myself here the enquiry whether possibly the river-names which contain an ar as the concluding part of the word may not be compounded with this unknown word for a river; to assume a simple suffix seems to me in this case rather niggardly." So also the ending en has been supposed by some of our own[12] Celtic scholars, as Armstrong and O'Brien, to be the same as the Welsh aven, Gael. amhainn, water or river, an opinion which has also, though to a more limited extent, received the sanction of Pott.

There are various minor objections to the above theories which I forbear to urge, because I think that the main argument against them is to be found in the manner in which these endings run through the whole European system of river-names. And it seems to me therefore more reasonable to refer them to a general principle which pervades the Indo-European languages, than to a particular word of a particular language. The principle I refer to is that of phonetic accretion, and it is that upon which the above word aven or amhainn, is itself formed from a simple root, by one of the very endings in question, that in en. Instead then of explaining—as the followers of the above system have done—the Saone (Sagonna) by the Celt. sogh-an, "sluggish river", I prefer[13] to point to the general principle upon which the root sogh has the power, so to speak, of making itself into soghan (e.g., in Lat. segn-is.)

Not but that the principle contended for by the above writers may obtain in some cases: the Garumna, ancient name of the Garonne, looks like one of them, though even in this case I think that the latter may be the proper form, and the former only a euphonism of the Latin poets: the geographers, as Ptolemy, call it Garunna.

Then again the question arises whether, seeing that en and es in the Celtic tongues, and el in the Germanic, have the force of diminution, this may not be the meaning in the names of rivers. Zeuss, (Die Deutschen), suggests this in the case of the Havel and the Moselle; but seeing that one of these rivers has a course of 180 and the other of 265 miles, I think they might rather be adduced to prove that these endings are not diminutive. We may cite also the Yssel and the Albula (Tiber), both[14] large rivers, with this ending. While in Germany we have two rivers close together, the great and little Arl, (anc. Arla, or Arila)—here seems the very case for a diminutive, yet both rivers have the same ending. Not but that there are instances of a diminutive in river-names, but they seem of later formation. Thus there is no reason to doubt that the French Loiret, which is a small river falling into the large one, means "the little Loire." Etymology in this case is in perfect accord with the facts.

Upon the whole, then, I am inclined to the opinion, which seems in the main that of Förstemann, that, at least as the general rule, these endings are simply phonetic, and that they have no meaning whatever. In our own and the cognate languages, en is the principal phonetic particle—e.g., English bow, Germ. bogen—Germ. rabe, Eng. raven—Lat. virgo, Fr. vierge, Eng. virgin. But we have also traces in English of a similar phonetic er, (see Latham's Handbook of[15] the Eng. Language, p. 199). The general reader will understand better what is here intended by comparing our words maid and maiden. Between these two words there is not the slightest shade of difference as regards meaning—the ending en is merely added for the sake of the sound, or, in other words, it is phonetic. Just the same difference then that there is between our words maid and maiden I take to be between the names of our rivers Lid and Lidden. The ending in both cases serves, if I may use the expression, to give a sort of finish to the word.

The question then arises—supposing these endings to be phonetic—were they given in the first instance, or have they accrued in after times? It is probable that both ways might obtain; indeed we have some evidence to shew that the latter has sometimes been the case. Thus the Medina in the Isle of Wight was once called the Mede, and the Shannon of Ireland stands in Ptolemy as[16] the Senus. On the other hand cases are more frequent in which the ending has been dropped. Thus the Yare is called by Ptolemy the Garrhuenus, i.e., the Garron or Yarron. And the Teme appears in Anglo-Saxon charters as the Taméde or Teméde. Indeed the Thames itself would almost seem, by having become a monosyllable, to have taken the first step of a change which has been arrested for ever. So in Germany the Bille, Ohm, Orre, and Bordau, appear in charters of the 8th and 9th cent., as the Bilena, Amana, Oorana, and Bordine. And in France the Isara and the Oscara have in modern times become respectively the Oise and the Ousche; in both these two cases the ending er has been dropped; for Oise=is, not isar; and Ousche=osc, not oscar.

This latter principle is indeed only in accordance with the general tendency of language towards what Max Müller terms "phonetic decay"—a principle which seems less active in the rude than in the cultivated[17] stages of society. It would appear as if civilization sought to compensate itself for the increased requirements of its expression, by the simplification of its forms, and the rejection of its superfluous sounds.

Upon the whole then I think that as the general rule these endings have been given in the first instance, and that they have but rarely accrued in after times. Such being the case, though in one point of view they may be called phonetic, as adding nothing to the sense, yet in another point of view they may be called formative, as being the particles by means of which words are constructed out of simple roots. And of the names in the following pages, a great part, in some language, or in some dialect, are still living words. And those that are not, are formed regularly upon the same principle, common to the Indo-European system.

[18]

CHAPTER III.

ON THE MEANING OF RIVER-NAMES.

The names of rivers may be divided into two classes, appellative and descriptive—or in other words, into those which describe a river simply as "the water" or "the river," and those which refer to some special quality or property of its own.

In the case of a descriptive name we may be sure that it has been given—not from any fine-drawn attribute, but from some obvious characteristic—not from anything which we have to seek, but from something which, as the French say, "saute aux yeux." If a stream be very rapid and impetuous—if its course be winding and tortuous—if its waters be very clear or very turbid—these are all marked features which would naturally give it a name.[19]

But such derivations as the following from Bullet can only serve to provoke a smile. Thus of the Wandle in Surrey he says—"Abounding in excellent trouts—van, good, dluz, a trout." (I much fear that the "excellent trouts" have been made for the derivation, and not the derivation for the trouts.) Of the Irt in Cumberland he says—"Pearls are found in this river. Irt signifies surprising, prodigious, marvellous." Marvellous indeed! But Bullet, though nothing can be more childish than many of his etymological processes, has the merit of at least taking pains to find out what is actually the notable feature in each case under consideration, a point which the scholarly Germans sometimes rather neglect.

River-names, in relation to their meaning, may be ranked under seven heads.

1. Those which describe a river simply as "the water," "the river." Parallel with this, and under the same head, we may take the words which describe a river[20] as "that which flows," because the root-meaning of most of the words signifying water is, that which flows, that which runs, that which goes. Nevertheless, there may be sometimes fine shades of difference which we cannot now perceive, and which would remove the names out of this class into the next one.

2. Those which, passing out of the appellative into the descriptive, characterize a river as that which runs violently, that which flows gently, or that which spreads widely.

3. Those which describe a river by the nature of its course, as winding, crooked, or otherwise.

4. Those which refer to the quality of its waters, as clear, bright, turbid, or otherwise.

5. Those which refer to the sound made by its waters.

6. Those which refer to the nature of its[21] source, or the manner of its formation, as by the confluence of two or more streams.

7. Those which refer to it as a boundary or as a protection.

Under one or other of the above heads may be classed the greater part of the river-names of Europe.

And how dry and unimaginative a list it is! We dive deep into the ancient language of Hindostan for the meaning of words, but we recall none of the religious veneration to the personified river which is so strikingly manifest even to the present day. As we read in the Vedas of three thousand years ago of the way-farers supplicating the spirit of the stream for a safe passage, so we read in the newspapers of to-day of the pilgrims, as the train rattled over the iron bridge, casting their propitiatory offerings into the river below. We seek for word-meanings in the classical tongue of Greece, but they come up tinged with no colour of its graceful[22] myths. Few and far between are the cases—and even these are doubtful, to say the least—in which anything of fancy, of poetry, or of mythology, is to be traced in the river-names of Europe.

[23]

CHAPTER IV.

APPELLATIVES.

The great river of India, which has given its name to that country, is derived from Sansc. sindu, Persian hindu, water or sea. It was known to the ancients under its present name 500 years B.C. Another river of Hindostan, the Sinde, shews more exactly the Sansc. form, as the Indus does the Persian. It will be seen that there are some other instances of this word in the ancient or modern river-names of Europe.

The most widely spread root is the Sansc. ap, Goth. ahva, Old High Germ. aha, Old[24] Norse â, Ang.-Sax. ea, Lat. aqua, &c. With the form ahva Fürst connects Ahava as the name of a river in the district of Babylon, mentioned in Ezra, chap. 8, v. 21—"Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava." But from the 15th verse it would rather seem that Ahava was a place and not a river—"and I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava." The place might certainly, as in many other cases, take its name from the river on which it stood, but this is one step further into the dark. From the root ab or ap is formed Latin amnis, a river, corresponding, as Diefenbach suggests, with a Sansc. abnas. Also the Celt. auwon, avon, abhain, or amhain, of the same meaning, from the simple form found in Obs. Gael. abh, water. The Old German aha, awa, ava, or afa, signifying water or river, is added to many names of that country which are themselves probably of Celtic or other origin; the form in Modern German is generally ach or au. The ending[25] in a of some English rivers, as the Rotha, Bratha, &c., I have already suggested, chapter 3, may be from the same origin; this form corresponds most nearly with the Scandinavian. There are one or two, as the Caldew in Cumberland, which seem to show the Germ. form au or ow. The ending ick or ock in several Scotch rivers, as the Bannock and the Errick, may be from a word of similar meaning, most probably the obs. Gael. oich.

I divide the widely spread forms from this root for convenience into two groups, ap or av, and ach or ah. The relation between the consonants is shown in the Gr. ἵππος, Lat. equus, Ang.-Sax. eoh, horse, three words similarly formed from one root. The European names in the following group I take to be most probably from the Celtic—the Asiatic, if they come in, must be referred to the Sanscrit, or a kindred and coeval tongue.

A related form to No. 2 of the above group I take to be ain = Manx aon for avon.

And I place here also a form annas, which I take to be = Sansc. abnas, Latin amnis.

In the other form ah, ach, there may be more admixture of the German element.[28] But the English names, I take it, are all Celtic. The form ock comes nearest to the obs. Gael. oich.

With the Sanscrit root ab or ap is to be connected Sanscrit ambu, ambhas, water, whence Latin imber and Gr. ὄμβρος. If the Abus of Ptolemy was the name of the river Humber, it contains the oldest and simplest form of the root. But the river is called the Humbre in the earliest Ang.-Sax. records. I class in this group also the forms in am and em.

[30]The whole of the above forms are to be traced back to the Sanscrit verb ab or amb, signifying to move; and that probably to a more simple verb â. The Old Norse â, Ang.-Sax. eâ, water or river, contain then a root as primitive as language can show. We can resolve it into nothing simpler—we can trace it back to nothing older. And it is curious to note how the Latin aqua has, in the present French word eau, come round again once more to its primitive simplicity. Curious also to note to what phonetic proportions many of the words, as the Avon, the Humber, &c., have grown, and yet without adding one particle of meaning, as I hold, to the primeval â.

The root of the following group seems to be Sansc. ux or uks, to water, whence Welsh wysg, Irish uisg, Old Belg. achaz, water or river. Hence also Eng. ooze, and according to Eichoff (Parrallele des langues), also wash.

I am inclined to bring in here the root is, respecting which Förstemann observes that it is "a word found in river-names over a great part of Europe, but the etymology of which is as yet entirely unknown." I connect it with the above group, referring also to the Old Norse is motus, isia, proruere, as perhaps allied. I feel an uncertainty about bringing the name Ouse either in this group or the last, for two at least of the rivers so called are so very tortuous in their course as to make us think of the Welsh osgo, obliquity.

From the Sansc. ud, water—in comp. udra, as in samudra, the sea, i.e., collection of waters, (see also Hesudros above)—come Sansc. udon, Gr. ὕδωρ, Slav. woda, Goth. wato, Germ. wasser, Eng. water, Lith. audra, fluctus, &c.

[35]To the above root I also put a form in ed, corresponding with Welsh eddain, to flow, Ang.-Sax. edre, a water-course, &c.

With the above may perhaps also be classed the Celtic and or ant,[10] to which Mone, (Die Gallische sprache), gives the meaning of water.

To the Celt. dubr, Welsh dwfr, water, are by common consent referred the names in the second division of the undermentioned. But the forms dub, duv, which in accordance with the general system here advocated, I take to be the older and simpler form of the word, are, by Zeuss (Gramm. Celt.), as well as most English writers, referred to Welsh du, Gael. dubh, black.

Another Celtic word for water is dur, which, however, seems more common in the names of towns (situated upon waters) than in the names of rivers. Is this word formed by syncope from the last, as duber = dur? Or is it directly from the root of the Sansc. drâ or dur, to move?

In this chapter is to be included the root ar, respecting which I quote the following remarks of Förstemann. "The meaning of river, water, must have belonged to this wide-spread root, though I never find it applied as an appellative, apart from the obsolete Dutch word aar, which Pott produces. I also nowhere find even an attempt to explain the following river-names from any root, and know so little as scarcely to make a passing suggestion; even the Sanscrit itself shows me no likely word approaching it, unless perhaps we think of ara, swift (Petersburger Wörterbuch)."

The root, I apprehend, like that of most other river-names, is to be found in a verb signifying to move, to go—the Sansc. ar, ir or ur, Lat. ire, errare, &c. And we are not without an additional trace of the sense we want, as the Basque has ur, water, errio, a river, and the Hung. has er, a brook. The[39] sense of swiftness, as found in Sansc. ara, may perhaps intermix in the following names. But there is also a word of precisely opposite meaning, the Gael. ar, slow, whence Armstrong, with considerable reason, derives the name of the Arar (or Saone), a river noted above all others for the slowness of its course. Respecting this word as a termination see page 11.

From ar and ur, to move, the Sanscrit forms arch and urj, with the same meaning, but perhaps in a rather more intense degree, if we may judge by some of the derivatives, as Lat. urgeo, &c. In two of the three appellatives which I find, the Basque erreca, brook, and the Lettish urga, torrent, we may trace this sense; but in the third, Mordvinian (a Finnish dialect), erke, lake, it is altogether wanting. And on the whole, I cannot find it borne out in the rivers quoted[41] below. Perhaps the Obs. Gael. arg, white, which has been generally adduced as the etymon of these names, may intermix.

From the Sansc. ri, to flow, Gr. ῥεω, Lat. rigo (often applied to rivers—"Qua Ister Getas rigat," Tibullus), Sansc. rinas, fluid, Old Sax. rîha, a torrent, Ang.-Sax. regen,[42] Eng. rain, Slav. rêka, a stream, Welsh rhe, rapid, rhean, rhen, a stream, &c., we get the following group. The river Regen Berghaus derives from Germ. regen, rain, in reference to the unusual amount of rain-fall which occurs in the Böhmer-wald, where it has its source. Butmann derives it from Wend. and Slav. rêka, a stream, connecting its name also with that of the Rhine. Both these derivations I think rather too narrow.

With respect to the Rhine I quote the following opinions. Armstrong derives it from Celt. reidh-an, a smooth water, than which nothing can be more unsuitable—the characteristic of the river, as noticed by all observers, from Cæsar and Tacitus downwards—being that of rapidity. Donaldson compares it with Old Norse renna, fluere, and makes Rhine = Anglo-Saxon rin, cursus aquæ. Grimm (Deutsch. Gramm.) compares it with Goth. hrains, pure, clear, and thinks that "in any case we must dismiss the derivation from rinnan, fluere." Zeuss and Förstemann[43] support the opinion of Grimm; nevertheless, all three agree in thinking that the name is of Celtic origin. The nearest word, as it seems to me, is Welsh rhean, rhen, a stream, cognate with Sansc. rinas, fluid, Old Norse renna, fluere, and (as I suppose), with Goth. hrains, pure.

The Sansc. lî, to wet, moisten, spreads into many forms through the Indo-European languages. I divide them for convenience into two groups, and take first Lat. liqueo, Old[44] Norse leka, Ang.-Sax. lecan (stillare, rigare), Gael. and Ir. li, sea, Gael. lia, Welsh lli, llion, a stream. Most of the following names, I take it, are Celtic. I am not sure that the sense of stillness or clearness does not enter somewhat into the two following groups.

For the second group I take Lat. lavo, luo, Old Norse lauga, lavare, Anglo-Saxon lagu,[45] water, Gael. lo, water, Gael. and Ir. loin, stream. In this group there may perhaps be something more of the Germain element, e.g., in the rivers of Scandinavia.

[46]To the above root I also place the following, corresponding more distinctly with Welsh llifo, to pour.

More remotely with the Sansc. lî, liquere, and directly with Welsh lleithio, to moisten, llyddo, to pour, Gael. lith, a pool, smooth water, Goth. leithus, Ang.-Sax. lidh, liquor, poculum, potus, I connect the following. The rivers themselves hardly seem to bear out the special idea of smoothness, which we might be apt to infer from the root, and from the character of the mythological river Lethe.

From the Sansc. nî, to move, comes nîran, water, corresponding with the Mod. Greek νερόν of the same meaning. And that the Greek word is no new importation into that language, we may judge by the name of Nereus, a water-god, the son of Neptune. The Gr. ναω, fluo, the Gael. nigh, to bathe, to wash, and the Obs. Gael. near, water, a river, show a close relationship; the Heb. nhar, a river, also seems to be allied. Compare the Nore, a name given to part of the estuary of the Thames, with the Narra, the name of the two branches by which the Indus flows into the sea. Also with the Nharawan, an ancient canal from the Tigris towards the Persian Gulf. And with the[48] Curische Nehrung, a strip of land which separates the lagoon called the Curische Haf in Prussia from the waters of the Baltic. On this name Mr. Winning remarks,[17] "I offer the conjecture that the word nehrung is equivalent to our break-water, and that it is derived from the Sabine (or Old Prussian) term neriene, strength, bravery." I should propose to give it a meaning analogous, but rather different—deriving it from the word in question, nar or ner, water, and some equivalent of Old Norse engia, coarctare, making nehrung to signify "that which confines the waters" (of the lake). In all these cases there is something of the sense of an estuary, or of a channel communicating with the sea—the Curische Haf being a large lagoon which receives the river Niemen, and discharges it by an outlet into the Baltic. The following names I take to be for the most part of Celtic origin.

From the Sansc. nî, to move, Gael. nigh, to bathe, to wash, comes, I apprehend, the Welsh nannaw, nennig, nant, a small stream.

[50]Closely allied to nî, to move, I take to be Sansc. niv, to flow, Welsh nofio, to swim, to float, whence the names undermentioned. The Novius of Ptolemy, supposed to be the Nith, if not a false rendering, might come in here.

From the same root, nî, to move, and closely connected with the last group, I take to be Sansc. nis, to flow, to water. Zeuss (Die Deutschen) takes the word, as far as it relates to the rivers of Germany, to be of Slavonic origin. It appears to be the word found as the second part of some Slavonic river-names, as the Yalomnitza. But it is also both Celtic and Teutonic, for the Armorican has naoz, a brook, and the German has nasz, wet, nässen, to be wet.

[52]From the Greek ναω, fluo, comes νᾶμα, a stream, ναματιᾶιον ὕδωρ, running water. Hence seems to be Namadus, the name given by the Greek geographers to the Nerbudda of India.

Another form which I take to be derived from the above Sanscrit root nî, by the prefix s, is Sansc. snu, fluere, stillare, (whence Germ. schnee, Eng. snow, &c.)

A derivative form is the Gael. and Ir. snidh or snith, to ooze through, distil, Obs. Gael. and Ir. snuadh, to flow, and snuadh, a river, whence I take the following. Förstemann refers to Old High German snidan, Modern German schneiden, to divide, in the sense of a boundary, which is a root suitable enough in itself, though I think it ought to yield the preference to the direct sense of water.

The form snid or snith introduces the form nid or nith, and suggests the enquiry whether that may not also be a word signifying water. Donaldson, (Varronianus), referring to a word Nethuns, "found on a Tuscan mirror over a figure manifestly intended for Neptune," observes that "there can be little doubt that nethu means water in the Tuscan language." Assuming the correctness of the premises, I think that this must be the case; and that as the Naiades (water-nymphs), contain the Greek ναω; as Nereus (a water-god), contains the word ner before referred to; as Neptune contains the Greek νίπτω, in each case involving the signification of water, so Nethuns (=Neptunus) must contain a related word neth or nethun of the same meaning. Also that this word comes in its place here, as a derivative of the root nî, and as a corresponding form to the Celtic snidh or snith.[54]

There are, however, two other meanings which might intermix in the following names; the one is that suggested by Baxter, viz., Welsh nyddu, to turn or twist, in the sense of tortuousness; and the other is Old Norse nidr, fremor, strepitus.

There can hardly be a doubt that the words sar, sor, sur, so widely spread in the names of rivers, are to be traced to the Sansc. sar, sri, to move, to go, sru, to flow, whence saras, water, sarit, srôta, river. The Permic and two kindred dialects of the Finnic class[55] have the simple form sor or sur, a river, and the Gaelic and Irish have the derived form sruth, to flow, sroth, sruth, river. In the names Sorg, Sark, Sarco, I rather take the guttural to have accrued.

The form saras, water, seems to be found in the following two names.

And the Sansc. sarit, Gael. and Ir. sroth, sruth, a river, seem to be found in the following.

[57]

It would seem that the foregoing forms sri, sru, srot, sometimes take a phonetic t, and become stri, stru, strot. Thus one Celtic dialect, the Armorican, changes sur into ster, and another, the Cornish, changes sruth into struth—both words signifying a river. But indeed the natural tendency towards it is too obvious to require much comment. Hence we may take the names Stry and Streu. But is the form Stur from this source also? Förstemann finds an etymon in Old High German stur, Old Norse stôr, great. This may obtain in the case of some of the rivers of Scandinavia, but is hardly suited for those of England and Italy, none of which are large. The root, moreover, seems too widely spread, if, as I suspect, it is this which forms the ending of many ancient names as the Cayster, the Cestrus, the Alster, Elster, Ister, Danastris, &c. The Armorican ster, a river, seems to be the word most nearly concerned.

From the Sanscrit root su, liquere, come Sansc. sava, water, Old High German sou, Lat. succus, moisture, Gael. sûgh, a wave, &c.; (on the apparent resemblance between Sansc. sava, water and Goth. saivs, sea, Diefenbach observes, we must not build). Hence I take to be the following; but a word very liable to intermix is Gael. sogh, tranquil; and where the character of stillness is very marked, I have taken them under that head.

In the Sanscrit mih, to flow, to pour, Old Norse mîga, scaturire, Anglo-Saxon migan, mihan, to water, Sansc. maighas, rain, Old Norse mîgandi, a torrent—("unde," says Haldorsen, "nomina propria multorum torrentium"),[60] Obs. Gael. and Ir. machd, a wave, I find the root of the following. Most of the names are no doubt from the Celtic, though the traces of the root are more faint in that tongue than in the Teutonic. This I take to be the word, which in the forms ma, and man or men, forms the ending of several river-names.

From the root mî, to flow, come also Sansc. mîras, Lat. mare, Goth. marei, Ang.-Sax. mêr, Germ. meer, Welsh mar, mor, Gael. and Ir. muir, Slav. morie, &c., sea or lake. I should be more inclined however to derive most of the following from the cognate Sansc. mærj, to wash, to water, Lat. mergo, &c. Also, the Celtic murg, in the more definite sense of a morass, may come in for some of the forms.

Another form of Sansc. marj, to wet, to wash, is masj, whence I take the following.

From the Sanscrit vag or vah, to move, comes vahas, course, flux, current, cognate with which are Goth. wegs, Germ. woge, Eng. wave, &c. An allied Celtic word is found as the ending of many British river-names, as the Conway, the Medway, the Muthvey, the Elwy, &c. Hence I take to be the following, in the sense of water or river.

An allied form to the above is found in Sansc. vi, vîc, to move, Lat. via, &c., and to which I put the following.

Formed on the root vi, to move, is probably also the Sansc. vip or vaip, to move, to agitate, Latin vibrare, perhaps vivere, Old Norse vippa, vipra, gyrare, Eng. viper, &c. I cannot trace in the following the sense of rapidity, which we might suspect from the root. Nor yet with sufficient distinctness the sense of tortuousness, so strongly brought out in some of its derivatives.

From the root vip, to move, taking the prefix s, is formed swip, which I have dealt with in the next chapter.

In the Sansc. par, to move, we find the root of Gael. beathra (pronounced beara),[65] Old Celt. ber, water, Pers. baran, rain, &c., to which I place the following.

From the Sansc. plu, to flow, Lat. pluo and fluo, come Sansc. plavas, flux, Lat. pluvia and fluvius, Gr. πλυνω, lavo, Ang.-Sax. flôwe, flum, Lat. flumen, river, &c. Hence we get the following.

From the above root come also the following, which compare with Sansc. plavas, Mid. High Germ. vlieze, Mod. Germ. fliess, Old Fries. flêt, Old Norse fliot, stream. And I think that some at least of this group are German.

There are two more forms from the same root, the former of which we may refer to the Irish and Gael. fluisg, a flushing or flowing. The latter shows a form nearest to the[67] Ang.-Sax. and Old High Germ. flum, Lat. flumen, though I think that the names must be rather Celtic.

From the Sansc. gam, to go, is derived, according to Bopp and Monier Williams, the name of the Ganges, in Sanscrit Gangâ. The word is in fact the same as the Scotch "gang," which seems to be derived more immediately from the Old Norse ganga. In the sense of "that which goes," the Hindostanee has formed gung, a river, found in the names of the Ramgunga, the Kishengunga, the Chittagong, and other rivers of India. The same ending is found by Förstemann in the old names of one or two German rivers, as the Leo near Salzburg, which in the 10th cent. was called the Liuganga. Another name for the Ganges is the Pada, for which[68] Hindoo ingenuity has sought an origin in the myth of its rising from the foot of Vishnoo. But as pad and gam in Sanscrit have both the same meaning, viz., to go, I am inclined to suggest that the two names Ganga and Pada may simply be synonymes of each other.

The Sansc. verb gam, to go, along with its allied forms, is formed on a simpler verb gâ, of the same meaning. To this I put the following.

[69]The Sansc. ikh, to move, must, I think, contain the root of the following, though I find no derivatives in any sense nearer to that of water or river.

From the Sansc. dravas, flowing, are derived, according to Bopp, the Drave and the Trave. The root-verb is, I presume, drâ, to move. Hence I have suggested, p. 37, may be the Welsh dwr, water.

[70]In the Sansc. dram, to move, to run, Gr. δρέμω, whence dromedary, &c., is to be found the root of the following. But dram, as I take it, is an interchanged form with the preceding drav, as amon = avon, &c., ante.

Another word of the same meaning as the last, and perhaps allied in its root, is Sansc. trag, to run, Gr. τρέχω, Goth. thragjan. It will be observed that the above Greek verb mixes up in its tenses with the obsolete verb δρέμω of the preceding group. In all these words signifying to run there may be something of rapidity, though I am not able to remove them out of this category.

The Sansc. il, to move, Gr. ἑίλω, Old High Germ. ilen, Swed. ila, Mod. Germ. eilen, to hasten, Fr. aller, &c., is a very widely spread root in river-names.

From the above root al or il, to move, to go, I take to be the Gael. ald or alt, a stream, (an older form of which, according to Armstrong,[72] is aled); and the Old Norse allda, Finnish aalto, a wave, billow. As an ending this word is found in the Nagold of Germany (ant. Nagalta), and in the Herault of France, Dep. Herault. Förstemann makes the former word nagalt, and remarks on it as "unexplained." It seems to me to be a compound word, of which the former part is probably to be found in the root nig or nî, p. 47.

Also from the root al or il, to move, I take to be the Old Norse elfa, Dan. elv, Swed. elf, a river. The river Ἄλπις mentioned in Herodotus is supposed by Mannert to be the Inn by Innsbrück. I think the able Editor of[73] Smith's Ancient Geography has scarcely sufficient ground for his supposition that Herodotus, in quoting the Alpis and Carpis as rivers, confounded them with the names of mountains. The former, it will be seen, is an appellative for a river; the latter is found in the name Carpino, of an affluent of the Tiber, and might be from the Celt. garbh, violent; a High Germ. element, for instance, would make garbh into carp. But indeed the form carp is that which comes nearest to the original root, if I am correct in supposing it to be the Sansc. karp, Lat. carpo, in the sense of violent action. In the following list I should be inclined to take the names Alapa, Elaver, and Ilavla, as nearest to the original form.

Förstemann seems to me to be right in his conjecture that the forms alis, els, ils, are also extensions of the root al, el, il. We see the same form in Gr. ἑλισσω, an extension of ἑιλω, and having just the same meaning of verso, volvo. Indeed I think that this word, which we find specially applied to rivers, is the one most concerned in the following names, two of which, it will be seen moreover, belong to Greece. Hence may perhaps be derived the name of the Elysii, (wanderers?) a German tribe mentioned in Tacitus.[75] And through them, of many names of men, as the Saxon Alusa and Elesa, down to our own family names Alice and Ellice.[27]

The root sal Förstemann takes to be Celtic, and to mean salt water. No doubt saltness is a characteristic which would naturally give a name to a river. So it does in the case of the "Salt River" in the U.S., and of the Salza in the Salzkammergut. But I can[76] hardly think that all the many rivers called the Saale are salt, and I am inclined to go deeper for the meaning. The Sansc. has sal, to move, whence salan, water. The first meaning then seems to be water—applied to the sea as the water—and then to salt as derived from the sea. So that when the Gr. άλς, the Old Norse salt, and the Gael. sal, all mean both salt, and also the sea, the latter may be the original sense. From the above root, sal, to move, the Lat. forms both salire and saltare, as from the same root come sal and salt. I take the root sal then in river-names to mean, at least in some cases, water. In one or two instances the sense of saltness comes before us as a known quality, and in such case I have taken the names elsewhere. But failing the proper proof, which would be that of tasting, I must leave the others where they stand.

It is possible that the root als, ils, found in the name of several rivers, as the Alz, Elz, Ilse, may be a transposition of the above, just as Gr. άλς = Lat. sal. But upon the whole I have thought another derivation better, and have included them in a preceding group.

From the Sansc. var or vars, to bedew, moisten, whence var, water, varsas, rain, Gr. ἐρση, dew, Gael. and Ir. uaran, fresh water, I get the following, dividing them into the two forms, var and vars.

In the above Sansc. var, to moisten, to water, is contained, as I take it, the root of the Finnic wirta, a river, the only appellative I can find for the following.

The following names have been generally supposed to be derived from Welsh cledd or cleddeu, sword, and to be applied metaphorically to a river. But I think it will be seen from the Sansc. klid, to water, whence klaidan, flux, Gr. κλύδων, fluctus, unda, Ang.-Sax. glade, a river, brook, that the meaning of water lies at the very bottom of the word. Perhaps, however, as the senses of a running stream and of a sharp point often run parallel to each other, there may be in this case a relationship between them.

There are two Sanscrit roots from which the word ag, ang, ing, in river-names might be deduced. One is the verb ag or aj, to move, whence anjas, movement, (or the verb ac or anc, to traverse), and the other is the verb ag or ang, to contract, whence Latin anguis, snake, anguilla, eel, Eng. angle, &c. The sense then might be either the ordinary one of motion, the root-meaning of most river names, or it might be the special sense of tortuousness. But as the only appellative I can find is the word anger, a river, in the Tcheremissian dialect of the Finnic (Bonaparte polyglott), I think it safer to follow the most common sense, though the other[81] may not improbably intermix. The derivation of Mone, from Welsh eog, salmon, I do not think of.

From the Sansc. pî, to drink, also to give to drink, to water, Gr. πιω, πινω, we may get a form pin in river-names.

From the above Sansc. pi we may also derive the form pid. The only appellative I find, (if it can be called one), is the Ang.-Sax. pidele, a thin stream, given by Kemble in the glossary to the Cod. Dip.; and hence the name Piddle, of several small streams. The only name I find in the simple form, and that uncertain, is the Pindus of Greece. Then there is a form peder, which seems to be from a definite word, and not from the simple suffix er.

Also from the Sansc. root pi, to drink, to water, we get the form bib or pip, as found in Lat. bibo, and in Sansc. pipâsas, toper. Here also in the simple form I only find one name—the Beuve in France, Dep. Gironde. In the form biber there are many names, particularly in Germany. Graff (Sprachschatz), seems to refer the word to biber, beaver, but Förstemann, with more reason, as I think, suggests a lost word for water or river.

Perhaps also from the root pi we may derive the Ir. buinn, river, bual, biol, water. From the former Mr. Charnock derives the name of the Boyne, a derivation which I think suitable, even if we take the ancient form Buvinda, (Zeuss, Gramm. Celt.,) which might be more properly Buvinna, as Gironde for Garonne in France. For the Bunaha in Germany, the Old Norse buna, scaturire, might also be suggested.

From the Ir. biol, buol, I derive the following, keeping out the rivers of the Slavonic districts, which may be referred to the Slav. biala, white.

A very obscure root in river-names is gog or cock. The only appellatives I find are in the Celtic, viz., Gael. caochan, a small stream, Arm. goagen, wave; unless we think also of the word jokk, jöggi, which in the Finnic dialects signifies a river; and in that case the most probable root would be the Sansc. yug, to gush forth. To the river Coquet, in Northumberland, something of a sacred character seems to have been ascribed; an altar having been discovered bearing the inscription "Deo Cocidi," and supposed to have been dedicated to the genius of that river. Again, we are reminded of the Cocytus in[86] Greece, a tributary of the river Acheron, invested with so many mysterious terrors as supposed to be under the dominion of the King of Hades. Possibly, however, it might only be the similarity, or identity, of the names which transferred to the one something of the superstitious reverence paid to the other. At all events, I can find nothing in the etymology to bear out such a meaning.

From the Sansc. mid, to soften, to melt, (perhaps formed on the root mi, p. 59), come Sansc. miditas, fluid, Lat. madidus, wet. Herein seems a sufficient root for river-names, but there is another which is apt to intermix, Sansc. math, to move, whence, I take it, and not from the former is Old Norse môda, a river. I separate a form med or mid, in which the sense of medius, and also that of mitis, is in some cases clearly brought out; and another, muth or muot, which, though from the same root, as I take it, as môda, a river, (math, to move), has more evidently the sense of speed.

The only appellative for a river which I find derived from its sound is the Sanscrit nadi, Hind. nuddy, from nad, sonare. Whether the following names should come in here may be uncertain; I can find no links between them and the Sanscrit; perhaps the root nid, p. 54, may be suitable.

[89]The only words I can find at all bearing upon the following river-names are the Serv. jezor, Bohem. and Illyr. jezero, lake, wherein may probably lie a word jez, signifying water. But respecting its etymology I am entirely in the dark.

Another word, of which the belongings are not clearly to be traced, is the Armorican houl, houlen, unda, to which we may put the following.

In the Irish and Obs. Gael. dothar, water, Welsh diod, drink, diota, to tipple—with[90] which we may perhaps also connect the Lapp. dadno, river, Albanian δέτ, sea, and Rhæt. dutg, torrent, we may find the root of the following.

From the Welsh wyl, Ang.-Sax. wyllan, Eng. well, to flow or gush, (Sansc. vail, to move?), we got the following.

A word which appears to have the meaning of water or river, but respecting the etymology of which I am quite ignorant, is asop or asp. That it has the above meaning I infer only from finding it as the second part of the word in the ancient river-names Cho(aspes), Hyd(aspes), and Zari(aspis). In an independent form it occurs in the following. Lhuyd, (in the appendix to Baxter's glossary), referring to Hespin as the name of sundry small streams in Wales, derives it from hespin, a sheep that yields no milk, because these streams are almost dry in summer. This derivation is unquestionably false so far as this, that the two words are merely derived from the same origin, viz., Welsh hesp or hysp, dry, barren. But whether[92] this word has anything to do with the following names is doubtful; it seems at any rate unsuitable for the large rivers, such as the Hydaspes, (the Jhylum of the Punjaub). From the derivation of Mone, who finds in Isper, as in Wipper, p. 64, a word per, mountain, I entirely dissent.

[93]

CHAPTER V.

THAT WHICH RUNS RAPIDLY, FLOWS GENTLY, OR SPREADS WIDELY.

In the preceding chapter I have included the words from which I have not been able to extract any other sense than that of water. As I have before mentioned, it is probable that in some instances there may be fine shades of difference which would remove them out of that category, but whenever I have thought to have got upon the trace of another meaning, something has in each case turned up to disappoint the conditions.

In the present chapter, which comprehends the words which describe a river as that which runs rapidly, that which flows gently, that which spreads widely, there may still in some cases be something of an appellative[94] sense, because there may be a general word to denote a rapid, a smooth, or a spreading stream.

Among the rivers noted for their rapidity is the Rhone. This is the characteristic remarked by all the Latin poets—

I think that Donaldson and Mone are unquestionably wrong in making the name of this river Rho-dan-us, from a word dan, water. Still more unreasonable is a derivation in the Cod. Vind., from roth, violent, and dan, Celt. and Hebr. a judge! On this Zeuss (Gramm. Celt.) remarks—"The syllable an of the word Rhodanus is without doubt only derivative, and we have nothing here to do with a judge; nevertheless the meaning violent (currens, rapidus,) is not to[95] be impugned." The word in question seems to be found in Welsh rhedu, to run, to race, Gael. roth, a wheel, &c. But there is a word of opposite meaning, Gael. reidh, smooth, which is liable to intermix. Also the Germ. roth, red, may come in, though I do not think that Förstemann has reason in placing all the German rivers to it.

Allied to the last word is the Eng. race, and the many cognate words in the Indo-European languages which have the sense of rapid motion, as Welsh rhysu, &c.

From the Gael. garbh, Welsh garw, violent, Armstrong derives the name of the Garonne and other rivers.[39] The root seems[97] to be found in Sansc. karv or karp, Latin carpo, &c., implying violent action. The Lat. carpo is applied by the poets to denote rapid progress, as of a river, through a country. So likewise more metaphorically to the manner in which a bold and steep mountain rises from the valley. As also one of our own poets has said—

Hence this root is found in the names of mountains as well as rivers—e.g., the Carpathians (Carpātes), and the Isle of Carpăthus, which "consists for the most part of bare mountains, rising to a central height of 4,000 feet, with a steep and inaccessible coast."[40]

From the Sansc. su, to shoot forth, sûs, sûtis, rushing or darting, Gr. σουσις, cursus, I take to be the following. Among the derived words, the Gael. sûth, a billow, seems to be that which comes nearest to the sense required.

Probably to the above we may put a form sest, sost, found in the following.

To the above root I also place the following, corresponding more distinctly with Old High German schuzzen, Ang.-Sax. sceotan, Eng. shoot, Obs. Gael. and Ir. sciot, dart, arrow.[43]

From the Germ. jagen, to hunt, to drive or ride fast, Bender derives the name of the Jaxt, in the sense of swiftness, suggesting also a comparison with the ancient Jaxartes of Asia. Förstemann considers both suggestions doubtful, but the former seems to me to be reasonable enough. The older sense[100] of jagen is found in the Sansc. yug, to dart forth, formed on the simple verb ya, to go. And appellatives are found in the Finnic words jokk, jöggi, a river. As for the Jaxartes, I am rather inclined to think that the more correct form would be Jazartes, and that it contains the word jezer, before referred to.

From the root vip, to move, p. 64, by the prefix s, is formed Old Norse svipa, Ang.-Sax. swîfan, Eng. sweep, &c. In these the sense varies between going fast and going round, and the same may be the case in the following names.

From the Obs. Gael. sgiap, sgiob, to move rapidly, Eng. skip, may be the following.

In the Gael. brais, impetuous, related perhaps to Lat. verso, we may find the root of the following.

[102]From the Sansc. rab or rav, to dart forth, whence (in a somewhat changed sense) Eng. rave, French ravir, Lat. rabidus, &c. The original meaning of a ravine was a great flood, or as Cotgrave expresses it—"A ravine or inundation of water, which overwhelmeth all things that come in its way."

From the Sansc. math, to move, are derived, as I take it, Old High German muot, Mod. Germ. muth, Ang.-Sax. môd, courage or spirit, Welsh mwyth, swift, &c., to which I place the following.

The Sansc. sphar, sphurj, to burst forth, shews the root of a number of words such[103] as spark, spring, spirt, spruce, spry, in which the sense of briskness or liveliness is more or less contained. But the Sansc. sphar or spar must be traced back to a simpler form spa or spe, as found in spew, to vomit, and in the word spa, now confined to medicinal springs.

Derived forms from the above root are also the following, which correspond more closely with Germ. sprütsen, Ang.-Sax. sprytan, Eng. spirt, Ital. sprizzare. And I think that most of these names are probably German.

In the preceding chapter I have treated of the root al, el, il, to go, and various of its derivations. There is another, alac, alc, ilc, which, as it seems most probably either to have the meaning of swiftness, as in the Lat. alacer, or of tortuousness, as in the Greek ἑλικος, I include in this place.

From the Welsh tarddu, to burst forth, we may take the following. There does not seem any connection between this and the[105] root of dart (jaculum); the latter from the first signifies penetration, and in river-names comes before us in the oblique sense of clearness or transparency.

With the Sansc. till, to move, to agitate, we may probably connect the Gael. dile and tuil, Welsh diluw, dylif, dylwch, a flood, deluge, as also Ang.-Sax. dilgian, German tilgen, to overthrow, destroy, &c. The Ang.-Sax. dêlan, Germ. thielen, to divide, in the sense of boundary, may however intermix in these names.

With the two Welsh forms dylif and dylwch, deluge, we may perhaps connect the following, though for the former the Ang.-Sax. delfan, to dig, delf, a ditch, may also be suitable.

From the Gael. and Ir. taosg, to pour, tias, tide, flood, may be the following. Perhaps the special sense of cataract may come in, at least in some cases, as two of the under-noted rivers, the Tees and the Tosa, are noted for their falls.

From the Sansc. gad or gand, Ang.-Sax. geôtan, Suio-Goth. gjuta, Danish gyde, Old Norse giosa, Old High Ger. giezen, Obs. Gael. guis, all having the meaning of Eng. "gush," we get the following. The Gotha or Gœta of Sweden may probably derive its name from the well-known fall which it makes at[108] Trolhætta. So also the Gaddada of Hindostan is noted for its falls; and the Giessbach is of European celebrity. But in some of the other names the sense may not extend beyond that of wandering, as we find it in Eng. gad, which I take to be also from this root. Or that of stream, as in Old High Germ. giozo, Gael. and Ir. gaisidh, rivulus.

From the Sansc. arb or arv, to ravage or destroy, cognate with Lat. orbo, &c., may be the following. To the very marked characteristic of the Arve in Savoy I have referred at p. 6. But there is a word of precisely opposite meaning, the Celt. arab, Welsh araf, gentle, which is very liable to intermix.

[110]In the Sansc. cal, to move, and the derivatives Sansc. calas, Gr. κελης, Obs. Gael. callaidh, Latin celer, all having the same meaning—the sense of rapidity seems sufficiently marked to include them in this chapter.

I am inclined to bring in here, as a derivative form of cal, and perhaps corresponding with the Obs. Gael. callaidh, celer, the forms[111] caled, calt, gelt. That the Germ. kalt, Eng. cold, may intermix, is very probable, but I do not think that all the English rivers at any rate can be placed to it. There is more to be said for it in the case of the Caldew than of the others, for one of the two streams that form it is called the Cald-beck (i.e., cold brook), and it seems natural that the whole river should then assume the name of Caldew (cold river). Yet there may be nothing more in it than that the Saxons or Danes who succeeded to the name, adopted it in their own sense, and conformed to it. It is to be observed that although the form Caldew corresponds with the Germ. Chaldhowa, yet that the local pronunciation is invariably Cauda (=Calda), corresponding with the Scandinavian form. Upon the whole however, there is much doubt about this group; the form gelt Förstemann refers, as I myself had previously done, to Old Norse gelta, in the sense of resonare. In the following names I take the Kalit(va) of Russia, and[112] the Celydnus and Celadon of Greece to approach the nearest to the original form.

I am also inclined to bring in, as another derivative form of cal, the word calip, calb, kelp. The only appellatives I find for it are the word kelp, sea-weed, and the Scottish kelpie, a water-spirit, wherein, as in other words of the same sort, may perhaps lie a word for water. However, this can be considered as nothing more than a conjecture.

The Sansc. car, to move, Lat. curro, like some other words of the same sort, branches out into two different meanings—that of going fast, and that of going round. Hence the river-names from this root have in some cases the sense of rapidity, and in others of tortuousness; and these two senses are somewhat at variance with each other, because tortuousness is more generally connected with slowness. Separating the two meanings as well as I can, I bring in the following here.

There appear to be several words in which the sense of violence or rapidity is brought out by the preposition pra, pro, fro, in composition with a verb. Thus the Welsh ffre-uo, to gush, whence ffrau, a torrent, seems to correspond with the Sansc. pra-i, Lat. præ-eo, &c. Or perhaps we should take a verb with a stronger sense, say yu, to gush, and presume a Sansc. pra-yu = Welsh ffre-uo. In the Albanian πρό, a torrent, corresponding with Welsh ffrau, there seems, however, no trace of a verb.

The Welsh ffrydio, to stream, to gush, appears to be formed similarly from the preposition fra, joined with the verb eddu, to press on, to go, corresponding with Sansc. it, Latin ito, &c. Hence it would correspond with a Sansc. pra-it, Lat. præ-ito, &c. From the verb comes the appellative ffrwd, a torrent, corresponding with the Bohem. praud, of the same meaning.

I also bring in here, as much suggestively as determinately, the following.

[116]According to the opinion of Zeuss and Gluck, the Danube, (ant. Danubius and Danuvius, Mod. Germ. Donau,) would come in here. These writers derive it from Gael. dan, Ir. dana, fortis, audax, in reference to its strong and impetuous current. This is no doubt the most striking characteristic of the river, but it might also not inappropriately be placed to the root tan, to extend, whence the names of some other large rivers. Gluck considers the ending vius to be simply derivative, and suggests that the Germans, with a natural striving after a meaning, altered this derivative ending into their word ava, aha, ach, or au, signifying river. Though Gluck is a writer for whose opinion I have great respect, and though this is the principle for which I myself have been all along contending, yet I am rather inclined to think that in Danuvius, as in Conovius (the Conway), there is contained a definite appellative, qualified by a prefixed adjective: this seems to me to be brought out more clearly[117] in the Medway, and in the names connected with it.

The word Ister, which, according to Zeuss, is the Thracian name of the Danube, I have elsewhere referred to the Armorican ster, a river. Not that I mean to infer therefrom that the name is Celtic, because ster is only a particular form of an Indo-European word sur. If we refer the prefix is to the Old Norse isia, proruere, then Ister would have the same meaning as that given above to Danubius. But the derivation of Mone, who explains it by y, the Welsh definite article, and ster, a river, making Ister = "The river," I hold with Gluck to be—like other derivations proceeding on the same principle—opposed to all sound philology.

Among the rivers noted for the slowness of their course, the most conspicuous is the Arar or Saone. Cæsar (de Bell. Gall.) describes it as flowing "with such incredible gentleness that the eye can scarcely judge which way it is going." Seneca adopts it as[118] a type of indecision—"the Arar in doubt which way to flow." Eumenius multiplies his epithets—"segnis et cunctabundus amnis, tardusque." The name Sauconna, Sagonna, Saonna, Saone, does not appear before the 4th cent., yet there does not seem any reason to doubt that it is as old as the other. Zeuss (Die Deutschen) and the Editor of "Smith's Ancient Geography" take this as the true Gallic name. And though Armstrong explains both the Arar and the Saone from the Celtic—referring the former to the Obs. Gael. ar, slow, and the latter to Gael. sogh, tranquil or placid, in which he may probably be correct, yet it by no means follows that the name of the Arar is Celtic, for ar is an ancient root of the Indo-European speech. To the same root as the Saone I also put the Seine (Sequăna), and the Segre (Sicŏris), comparing them with Lat. seg-nis. The former of these rivers is navigable for 350 miles out of 414, and the latter is noted in Lucian as "stagnantem Sicorim." Some[119] other rivers, in which the characteristic is less distinct, I also venture to place here, separating this root as well as I can from another p. 58.

Perhaps allied in its root to the last is the Gael. saimh, quiet, tranquil, to which I put the following.

In the Gael. ar, slow, (whence the Arar, p. 118,) is to be found, as I take it, the root of the Welsh araf, mild, gentle. From this Zeuss (Gramm. Celt.), derives the name of the Arrăbo, now the Raab. This root is liable to mix with another, arv, p. 109, of precisely opposite meaning.

I bring in here the word aram or arm, which, both in the names of rivers, and in the ancient names of men, as the German hero Arminius, needs explanation. The authority of Dr. Donaldson may probably have been the cause of the reproduction, even in some of the latest English works, of the mistake of confounding the name Armin, Ermin, or Irmin, with the word hermann, warrior, (from her, army, mann,[121] homo). That it is not so is shown by its appearance in the ancient names of women, as Ermina, Hermena, and Irmina,[51] (daughter of Dagobert the 2nd). And by the manner in which it forms compounds, as Armenfred, Irminric, Irminger,[52] Ermingaud, Irminher, &c. For we may take it as a certain rule that no word, itself a compound, forms other compounds in ancient names. Indeed, the last of the five names, Irminher, (which is found as early as the 7th cent.), is formed from the word her, army, so that, according to the above theory, it would be Her-mann-her. The fact then, as I take it, is that, both in the names of rivers and of men, the root is simply arm or irm, and armin or irmin an extended form, like those found all throughout these pages. As to its etymology, the word aram, arm, in the Teutonic dialects signifying poor or weak, is in[122] itself unsuitable, but I think that the original meaning may perhaps rather have been mild or gentle. The root seems to be found in the Gael. ar, slow; and aram may be a corresponding word to the Welsh araf. Baxter, who, though his general system of river-names I hold to be fallacious, was, for his time, no contemptible etymologist, suggests something of the sort.

In this place I am inclined to bring in the Medway, and some other names connected with it. Among the various derivations which have been suggested for this name, that of Grimm deserves the first place, though I much fear that it is too poetical to be true. He observes, (Gesch. d. Deutsch. Sprach.), comparing it with another name—"In[123] Carl's campaign, A.D. 779, there is a place mentioned in the vicinity of the Weser, called Medofulli, Midufulli; medoful means poculum mulsi, (Hel. 62, 10); it appears to have been a river, which at present bears some other name. Of just a similar meaning is the name of the river Medway flowing through the county of Kent into the Thames—i.e., Ang.-Sax. Meadovaege, Medevaege Medvaege (Cod. Dip.), from vaege, Old Sax. wêgi, Old Norse veig, poculum.... I suggest here a mythological reference: as the rivers of the Greeks and Romans streamed from the horn or the urn of the river-god, so may also the rivers and brooks of our ancestors, in a similar mythic fashion, have sprung from the over-turned mead-cup."

It is a pity to disturb so poetical a theory, coming too as it does from the highest authority, but I much fear that on a comparison of this name with all its related forms, it can hardly be substantiated. For the word does not stand alone—the prefix med is[124] found in several names in which the second part can hardly be taken to mean poculum, and the ending way is found in several names of which the former part cannot mean mulsum. In any case, it seems to me that a Saxon derivation can hardly be sustained. For Medoăcus, (=Medwacus), occurs as the ancient name of a river in Venetia—this appears to be precisely the same name as that of the Medwag or Medway—and in Venetia we can account for a Celtic element, but not for a German. In Nennius the name stands as Meguaid or Megwed; and comparing this with a river called the Medvied(itza) or Medviet(za) in Russia, it would seem rather probable that the form is not altogether false, but that only it should be Medwed instead of Megwed. In that case it would probably be only another form of Medweg, for d and g sometimes interchange in the Celtic dialects, as in the Gaelic uidh and uigh, via, a word which indeed I take to be related to the one in question. Again, in the Meduāna[125] of France and the English Medwin, we have a third form of ending, wân or win. And this may probably only be one of those extended forms in n so common in the Celtic languages.[53] So that the endings way, wân, wied, in Medway, Meduāna, Medvied(itza), may be slightly differing forms of a common appellative (p.p. 62, 63), qualified by the prefix med, which we have next to consider. In Gibson's "Etymological Geography" med is explained as medius—Medway = medium flumen—the river flowing through the middle of the county of Kent—and this I think is the general acceptation. In the case of the Medina, (ant. Mede), which divides the Isle of Wight into two equal parts, I should readily accept such a derivation, but in the case of the Medway it seems to me a feature scarcely sufficiently obvious to give the name. And I should on the whole prefer a derivation[126] from the same root as mead, mulsum, viz., Sansc. mid, to soften, Lat. mitis, Gael. meath, soft, mild—finding in Old Norse mida, to move slowly or softly, the word most nearly approximating to the sense, and thus deriving the name of the Medway from its gentle flow.

Nevertheless it must be observed that as well as the supposed river Medofulli referred to as above by Grimm, we find in a charter of the 10th cent., a river called Medemelacha, which seems evidently to contain the Gael. mealach, sweet, and to mean "sweet as mead." This river is near Medemblik on the Zuyder-zee, and I suppose that the name of the place is corrupted from it.

The following names I place here, though with uncertainty in the case of some of them.

I think, upon the whole, that the general meaning of the root lam, lem, lim, is smoothness. Though the root-meaning seems rather that of clamminess or adhesiveness, as found in Sansc. limpas, Gr. λιπος, Lat. limus, Old Sax. lêmo, Mod. Germ. lehm, Eng. lime, &c.[54] In the Gr. λιμνη, lake, the sense becomes that of smooth or standing water: this, as I take it, is in effect the word found in the Lake Leman, Loch Lomond, &c. Though the word most immediately concerned is the Gaelic liobh, liomh, Welsh llyfnu, to smooth; and the Loch Lomond, (properly Lomon), was also formerly called, as the river which issues from it is still, Leven, being just another form of the same word—v and m interchanging[128] as elsewhere noticed. Hence the Welsh llifo, to pour, p. 46, might be apt to intermix in the following. The Lat. lambo, the primitive meaning of which is to lick, is applied to the gentle washing of a river against its banks—"Quæ loca lambit Hydaspes,"—Horace. Dugdale observes that "at this day divers of those artificial rivers in Cambridgeshire, anciently cut to drain the fens, bear the name of Leam, being all muddy channels through which the water hath a dull or slow passage." In the following names the sense may be sometimes then that of muddiness, though in general, as I take it, that of sluggishness.

From the above form lam, lem, lim, I take to be formed by metathesis alm, elm, ilm. And the lake Ilmen in Russia I take to be in effect the same word as the lake Leman in Switzerland. In the name of another lake in Russia, the Karduanskoi-ilmen, it seems to occur as an appellative. A certain amount of doubt is imported by the coincidence of two names in which we find a sacred character—the river Almo, which was sacred to[130] Cybele, and a sacred fountain Olmius mentioned in Hesiod. The coincidence, however, may be only accidental.

Perhaps from the Gael. foil, slow, gentle, we may get the following.

[131]In the third division of this chapter I put the names in which the sense of spreading seems to be found. This sense may have three different acceptations—first, that, generally, of a wide river—secondly, that of a river relatively broad and shallow—thirdly, that of a river forming an estuary at its mouth.

I bring in here the Padus or Po, which, by Metrodorus Scepsius, a Greek author quoted by Pliny, has been derived from the pine-trees, "called in the Gallic tongue padi," of which there were a number about its source. A derivation like this jars with common sense, for it is unreasonable to suppose that the Gauls, coming upon this fine river, gave it no name until they had tracked it up to its source, and there made the not very notable discovery that it was surrounded by pine-trees. Much more probable is it that they came first upon its mouth, and much more striking would be the appearance that would be presented to them.[132] For, as Niebuhr observes, "the basin of the Po, and of the rivers emptying themselves into it was originally a vast bay of the sea," which by gradual embanking was confined within its present channels. As then the mouth of the Padus was a vast estuary, so in the Gael. badh, a bay or estuary, I find the explanation of the name. The root, I apprehend, is Sansc. pat, Lat. pateo, pando, &c., to spread, and hence, I take it, the name Bander, of several small bays on the S.W. coast of Asia, of Bantry Bay in Ireland, and of Boderia, the name given by Ptolemy to the Firth of Forth.

[133]In the Sansc. parth, to spread or extend, we may perhaps find the origin of the following. Can the name of the Parthians be hence derived, in reference to their well-known mode of fighting?

In the sense of "that which spreads" I am inclined to bring in the root ta, tav, tan, tam. While in the Gaelic we find tain, and the Obs. ta, water, taif, sea—in the Welsh we have the verbs taenu and tafu, to expand or spread. The latter, I think, must contain the root-meaning; and the appellatives must rather signify water of a spreading character. In this sense we find the words to, tû, tau, in the Hungarian dialects signifying a lake. The Sansc. has tan, to extend, but we must presume a simpler form ta, corresponding with the above Obs. Gael. word for water.[134] Mone explains tab, as in Tabuda (the Scheldt), as "a broad river, especially one with a broad mouth." This sense no doubt obtains in many of the names of this group, for, as well as the Scheldt; the Tay, Taw, Teign, and Tamar, all have this character in a more or less notable degree. In other cases the sense may be that of comparative broadness—thus the Timavus, though little more than a mile long, is 50 yards broad close to its source. So the characteristic of the Dane, as noticed by the county topographers, is that it is "broad and shallow." And the feature which strikes the topographer is of course that which would naturally give the name. There are, however, some other roots which might intermix, as Sansc. tan, resonare, Lat. tono, Germ. tönen, &c. Also Gael. and Ir. taam, to pour; Gael. and Ir. tom, to bathe, Welsh and Ir. ton, unda.