Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/129

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101

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 0, 1907.

CONTENTS. No. 1&3.

NOTES : Early British Names : their Interpretation, 101 The Gages of Bentley, Framtielrt, Sussex, 102 Burton's ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' 103 Pastoral Astronomy, 104 " Mesteque " : its Etymology" Adespota "Watts and the Rose " Spartam nactus es, hanc exorna" "Carry- ing coals to Newcastle " Error in Ruffhead Falling Birdcage and 111 Luck, 105" Boz-pole " " To go to pot " Hornsey Wood House : Harringay House, 106.

QUERIES : Poonah Painting ' Pop goes the Weasel' Addison and Col. Philip Dormer Newbolds of Derby- shire, 107 Latin Pronunciation in England " Haze" 'Bibliotheca Staffordiensis,' 108 " Blue- water " " Ar- miger " : " Generosus," &c. Ward Surname " Kingsley's Stand "John Amcotts George Geoffry Wyatville, 109 Antiquarian Society, Batley, Yorkshire Charles Reade's Greek Quotation Dubourdieu and England Families, 110.

REPLIES: Bell -horses: Pack-horses, 110 Cardinal Mezzofanti "Mony a pickle maks a mickle," 112 Rom- ney's Ancestry A Knighthood of 1603, 113 Major Hamill of Capri "G" Hard or Soft Splitting Fields of Ice, 114 ' The Times,' 1692 Duke of Kent's Children Rev. R. Rauthmel " The Old Highlander "" Mitis "" Moke," a Donkey, 115 "Mulatto" Royal Kepier School, Houghton - le - Spring " Wroth " Admiral Benbow's

Kingsland speare,' 117 J. L. Toole, 118.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' Society in the Country House' 'Visitation of England and Wales '' Poems of Long- fellow ' ' Poems of Herrick ' ' A Dictionary of Political Phrases and Allusions ' " The World's Classics " Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

EARLY BRITISH NAMES: THEIR INTERPRETATION.

Mona and cognate Names. Mona was the name of the isles of Anglesey and Man at the coming of the Romans. It goes back, therefore, to prehistoric time. We find the same element in other names, such as Monnow ; Menevia Juteorum (i.e., Menevia of the Goths), the ancient name of St. David's in South Wales ; Dumnonium, the ancient name of Devonshire, and mean- ing, as will presently appear, the region bounded on either side by water ; Clack- mannan, in Scotland ; Mannau Gododin, a name given in Welsh literature to what is now Haddingtonshire ; and besides these it occurs, in different modified forms, in a great many other geographical names, as I shall endeavour to show.

Now, in regard to the meaning, it is to be observed that the name is always used as a river-name, or else to designate a portion of land adjacent to or surrounded by water whilst the instances in which it is so used are so numerous as to leave little doubt that the word signifies water. This being taken for granted, the next point is to ascertain in what language or languages

he word is found with this meaning. The answer to this is that the nearest existing brm of a word with this meaning is the Norse word vand (water), the Scandinavian nasalized) form of the English word water, vat or vad being the root. Let us consider what modifications of this form of the word would be required to give the form found in Vtona, Man, and the other instances above nentioned. One would be the assimilating of the consonants nd into nn, which is very common in Celtic. Probably this modifica- tion of the word is to be seen in the name of Vannes, in Brittany, so called after the ancient Veneti, who dwelt on the coast, and of whose skill in navigation and commercial enterprise mention is made by Caesar. Next we know that original v passes frequently into m, thus giving the form of the word seen in Mona, Dumnonium (where du stands for the second numeral), Menevia, Clack- mannan, and the rest. As to the change of a into o in Mona, it is what is seen when man is pronounced as mon ; and in Welsh words borrowed from English it almost invariably takes place. And there is another modification which the root under considera- tion, vat or vad, might undergo, viz., by the m passing into n, which is also very common. In this form we meet frequently with it, as in the river-names Nith, Neath, Neathey, and Nen ; Namnates (?), ancient name of Nantes, in France ; Nantwich (Cheshire) ; Bradninch (Devonshire) ; Dinan (Brittany) ; Dinant (Belgium) ; in the word tri-nani, occurring in a Gaulish inscription ; in the Welsh word nant, which always means a place where the water collects ; and once more, in the name of the Celtic sea-god Nodens, to whom, in the Romano-British period, a temple was dedicated in what is now South Wales, and in the tribal names Novantes and Trinovantes (where the d or t of the root is changed into v ; cf. Latin medius and mefms), meaning, the former the tribe whose territory was defined by the Nith, and the latter the people of the three rivers, comparable as a geographical designa- tion with the Indian Penjaub.

Lastly, the initial letter v of our root might be dropped, as happens in Greek and in Welsh and Norse words. Probably this modification is seen in the Welsh name Glan Adda, or Adda side, and the river- name Annan, in Scotland and elsewhere. These different modifications of an initial v or w (the digamma) may be seen by com- paring English personal pronoun we with Greek hemeis, Latin nos, and Greek oida with Latin vidi. And in passing I may