QUALITY OF WATERS.
There are a number of river-names in which the sense of clearness,
brightness, or transparency is to be traced. From the Sansc. _cand_, to
shine, Lat. _candeo_, Welsh, Ir. Arm., and Obs. Gael. _can_, white,
clear, pure, we get the following. But the Gael. and Ir., _caoin_, soft,
gentle, is a word liable to intermix.
1. _England._ The CANN. Essex.
The KEN or KENT. Westmoreland.
The KENNE. Devonshire.
_Scotland._ The KEN. Joins the Dee.
The CONN. CONA of Ossian.
CANDY burn. Lanarkshire.
_Wales._ The CAIN. Merioneth.
_Germany._ CONE, 9th cent., now the COND.
_Russia._ The KANA. Gov. Yeniseisk.
_India._ The CANE or KEN--here?
2. _With the ending en._
_Scotland._ The CONAN. Dingwall.
_Italy._ The CANTIANO. Pont. States.
3. _With the ending er._
_England._ The CONDER. Lancashire.
The CONNER. Cornwall.
_Switzerland._ The KANDER.
4. _Compounded with vi, wy, river._
_Wales._ CONOVIUS ant. The CONWAY.
The Old Celtic word _vind_, found in many ancient names of persons and
places, as Vindo, Vindus, Vindanus,[59] Vindobona, Vindobala, &c.,
represents the present Welsh _gwyn_ (=_gwynd_), and the Ir. _finn_
(=_find_), white. "The Celt. _vind_," observes Gluck, "comes from the
same root as the Goth. _hveit_; it stands for _cvind_ with an intrusive
_n_; the root is _cvid_ = the Germ. root _hvit_." The meaning in
river-names is bright, clear, pure.
1. _England._ The VENT. Cumberland.
The QUENNY. Shropshire.
_Wales._ The GWYNEDD (=GWYND?)
_Ireland._ The FINN. Ulster.
_France._ The VENDÉE. Dep. Vendée.
_Russia._ The VIND(AU) or WIND(AU).
2. _With the ending en._
_Scotland._ The FINNAN. Inverness.
3. _With the ending er._
_England._ The lake WINDER(MERE)?[60]
_Ireland._ WINDERIUS; _Ptolemy_, a river not identified.
4. _With the ending rn, p. 34._
_Scotland._ The FINDHORN. Inverness.
5. _With the ending el._
_England._ The WANDLE. Surrey.
_Germany._ FINOLA, 8th cent., now the VEHNE.
From the Welsh _llwys_, clear, pure, Gael. _las_, to shine, Gael. and
Ir. _leus_, light, cognate with Old Norse _lios_, clear, pure, Lat.
_luceo_, &c., I derive the following. The Gael. _lâ_, _lo_, day, must, I
think, contain the root.
1. _England._ The LIZA. Cumberland.
_Scotland._ The LOSSIE. Elgin.
_France._ The LEZ. Dep. Herault.
_Belgium._ The LESSE.
_Germany._ The LOOSE. Pruss. Sax.
2. _With the ending en._
_France._ The LIZENA.
_Sweden._ The LJUSNE. Falls into the Gulf of Bothnia.
3. _With the ending er._
_Germany._ LESURA, 11th cent., now the LIESER.
LYSERA, 10th cent., now the LEISER.
From the root of the above, by the prefix _g_, is formed Gael. and Welsh
_glas_, blue or green, (perhaps originally rather transparent), and the
Old Norse _gladr_, Old High Germ. _glatt_, shining.
_Scotland._ The GLASS. Inverness.
GLASS. A lake, Rosshire.
_Germany._ The GLATT. Hohenzollern Sig.
_Switzerland._ GLATA, 8th cent. The GLATT.
Also from the same root come Gael., Ir., and Arm. _glan_, Welsh _glain_,
pure, clear, Eng. _clean_.
_England._ The GLEN. Northumberland.
The GLEN. Lincolnshire.
The CLUN. Shropshire.
_France._ The GLANE.
_Germany._ GLANA, 8th cent. The GLAN, two rivers, and the
GLON, three rivers.
_Switzerland._ The KLÖN, a small but beautiful lake in the
Klönthal--here, or to _klein_, little?
_Italy._ CLANIS ant., now the CHIANA.
CLANIUS ant., in Campania.
_Illyria._ The GLAN, in Carinthia.
From the Old High Germ. _hlutar_, Mod. Germ. _lauter_, pure, Förstemann
derives the following rivers of Germany. Hence also the name of
Lauterbrunnen (_brunnen_, fountain), in Switzerland.
_Germany._ HLUTR(AHA), 7th cent. The LAUTER, the LUDER, the LUTTER.
The SOMMERLAUTER in Wirtemberg seems to merit the title
of pureness only in summer.
The following names I think can hardly be referred to the same origin as
the above, though according to Lhuyd, who derives them from Welsh
_gloew_, clear, and _dwr_, water, they would have the same meaning.
_England._ The LOWTHER. Westmoreland.
_Scotland._ The LAUDER. Berwickshire.
_France._ The LAUTER.
In the Gael. and Ir. _ban_, white, we may probably find the meaning of
the following.
_Ireland._ The BANN. Three rivers.
_Scotland._ The BANN(OCK) by Bannockburn.
_Bohemia._ The BAN(ITZ).
Of the two following names the former may be referred to the Welsh
_claer_, and the latter to the Swed. _klar_, both same as Eng. _clear_.
_Ireland._ The CLARE. Connaught.
_Sweden._ The KLARA (_â_, river).
From the Welsh _têr_, pure, clear, we may get the following. The root is
found in Sansc. _tar_, to penetrate, whence _taras_, transparent.
1. _Italy._ The TARO. Joins the Po.
_Siberia._ The TARA. Joins the Tobol.
2. _With the ending en._
_England._ The TEARNE. Shropshire.
The DEARNE. Yorkshire.
_France._ The TARN. Joins the Garonne.
3. _With the ending es._
_Hungary._ The TARISA.
The following two rivers of Germany may, as suggested by Förstemann, be
referred to Old High Germ. _flât_, pure, bright.
1. _Germany._ FLAD(AHA), 8th cent. Not identified.
2. _With the ending enz._
_Germany._ FLADINZ, 11th cent., now the FLADNITZ.
The root _bil_ I have, in river-names generally, referred at p. 84 to
the Celtic _biol_, water. But in the Slavonic districts we may also
think of the Slav. _biala_, white, though we cannot say but that even
there the Celtic word may intermix.
_Germany._ The BILA in Bohemia.
The BIALA in Silesia.
_Russia._ The BIELAYA. Joins the Kama.
The BIALY. Joins the Narew.
From the Old High Germ. _swarz_, Mod. Germ. _schwarz_, black, are the
names of several rivers of Germany, as the SCHWARZA, the SCHWARZAU, the
SCHWARZBACH, &c. Also in Norway we have two rivers called SVART ELV, and
in Sweden the SVART AN, which falls into the Mälar Lake. From the Old
Norse _doeckr_, dark, may be the DOKKA in Norway, but for the DOCKER of
Lancashire the Gael. _doich_, swift, may be more suitable.
The Welsh _du_, Gael. _dubh_, black, probably occurs in river-names, but
I have taken, p. 36, the meaning of water, as found in Obs. Gael. _dob_,
to be the general one. The Welsh _dulas_, dark or blackish blue, is
found in the DOWLES of Shropshire, and in several streams of Wales. The
DOUGLAS of Lanarkshire shews the original form of the word, from _du_,
black, and _glas_, blue.
The root _sal_ I have taken at p. 76 to have in some cases the simple
meaning of water. But in the following the quality of saltness comes
before us as a known characteristic.
_Germany._ SALZ(AHA), 8th cent. The SALZA by Salzburg.
SALISUS, 8th cent., now the SELSE.
The SALZE. Joins the Werre.
_Hungary._ The SZALA.[61] Falls into Lake Balaton.
Of an opposite character are the following, which we may refer to Welsh
_melus_, Gael. and Ir. _milis_, sweet, _millse_, sweetness. Some other
rivers, as the ancient MELAS in Asia Minor, now the Kara-su (Black
river), and three rivers of the same name in Greece, must be referred to
Gr. {melas}, black.
_Germany._ MILZISSA, 8th cent., now the Mülmisch.
MILSIBACH, 11th cent.
_Portugal._ MELSUS ant. (Strabo).
FOOTNOTES:
[59] The three first are names of persons, and to them we might perhaps
refer the present family names WINDOW, WINDUS, VINDIN; though Windo and
Winidin were also ancient German names.--(_Förstemann's Altdeutsches
Namenbuch._) The Welsh name GWYN and the Irish FINN represent the later
form of the word.
[60] Or, as I have elsewhere derived it, from the man's name Winder,
still found in the district.
[61] The waters of Lake Balaton are described as "slightly salt," and I
assume from the name that the Szala is the river from which its saltness
is derived.