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 cha

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

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

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 strea

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

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

In the inscription of Pul found at Nineveh, as deciphered in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, vol. 19, pt. 2, the Euphrates is called the Irat, which is conjectured by the translator to have been a local name. It seems to be from the Sansc. irat (=Latin errans , Eng. errant ), from the verb ir , Lat. erro , to wander. The same word seems to be found in the Irati of Spain—perhaps also in the Orontes (=Irantes=Irates), of Syria. Possibly also in the Erid-anus or Po, though I am rather incli

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. 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 (= gwy

The Greta in the English Lake District has been generally derived from Old Norse grâta , Scotch greet , to weep or mourn, in allusion to the wailing sound made by its waters. There is also a Greta in Westmoreland and a Greta beck in Yorkshire. In the Obs. Gael. and Ir., greath also signifies a noise or cry, so that it is quite possible that the original Celtic name may have been retained in the same sense. Of an opposite meaning to the above is the name Blythe of several small rivers in England.

There are several river-names which contain the idea, either of the junction of two streams, or of the separation of a river into two branches. The Vistula, Visula, or Wysla, (for in these various forms it appears in ancient records), is referred by Müller, [63] rightly as I think, to Old Norse quisl , Germ. zwiesel , branch, as of a river. A simpler form of quisl is contained in Old Norse quistr , ramus, and the root is to be found in Sansc. dwis , to separate, Gael. and Ir. dis , two. The Old

The idea of a river as a protection or as a boundary seems to indicate a more settled state of society, and therefore not to belong to the earliest order of nomenclature. And consequently, though this chapter is not quite so bad as the well-known one "Concerning Owls," in Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland, the sum and substance of which is that "There are no owls of any kind in the whole Island"—it will be seen that the number of names is very small in which such a meaning is to be traced. T

In this chapter I include some names which do not come under any of the foregoing heads, or which have been omitted in their places. The following have generally been referred to Gael. caol , straight, narrow. But even if this derivation is to be received, we must seek another meaning for the Kola in Russian Lapland, and the Koli(ma) in Siberia—the latter in particular being a large river, with a wide estuary. The Gael. and Ir. beag , little, forms the ending of some Irish river-names, as the Aw

The names of rivers form a striking commentary on the history of language, so admirably expounded to the general reader in the recent work of Professor Max Müller. When we review the long list of words that must have once had the meaning of water or river, we can hardly fail to be struck with the number that have succumbed in what he so aptly terms "the struggle for life which is carried on among synonymous words as much as among plants and animals." We see too how large a portion of this long l

P. 25 . To the root ab or ap , water, place the Lith. and Lett. uppe , river, whence the following. P. 33 . To the root ud place as an appellative the Obs. Gael. ad , water. And add to form No. 1 the following names. P. 35 . The Celt. word and or ant , water, is nothing more than a strengthening of the above Obs. Gael. ad . P. 40 . In referring to the root ark , erk , I have omitted the Ir. earc , water, the appellative most nearly concerned. The Basque erreca , brook, might be taken to be borro