Guernsey.
_"Nao" or "Naw," a Ship_ (Vol. iv., p. 28.).--I have already answered
GOMER upon the imaginary word _naw_, a ship: I beg now to remark on MR.
FENTON'S _nav_. If _nav_ was a ship at all, I am at a loss to know why
it should be "a much older term." It would probably be subsequent to the
introduction of the Latin noun, which it docks of its final _is_. The
word or name is quoted from a Triad, the ninety-seventh of that series
which contains the mention of Llewelyn ap Griffith, the last prince of
Wales; and what makes it "one of the oldest" Triads, I have no idea. Nor
do I know what ascertains the date of any of them; or removes the date
of the composition of any one of them beyond the middle ages.
But _Nevydd_ is no very uncommon proper name of men and women, derived
from _nev_, heaven; and _nav neivion_ is simply "lord of lords." It
forms the plural like _mab_, _meibion_, and _march_, _meirchion_. Mr.
Walters gives _nav_ under no words but _lord_. David ap Gwelyn either
mentions the navigation of the lords, the Trojan chieftains, to Britain;
or else that of Nevydd Nav Neivion, cutting short his title. But the
former is the plain sense of the thing. If MR. FENTON will only turn to
Owen's _Dictionary_ (from which _naw_, a ship, is very properly
excluded) he will there find the quotation from Gwalchmai; in which the
three Persons of the Trinity are styled the _Undonion Neivion_,
"harmonizing or consentaneous Lords." He will scarcely make bold to turn
them into ships.