>What does '(Tsern-)' mean and what is it based on?
I'm quoting from I.I. Russu's book (1967):
"Derna, _Dierna_, locality in Dacia (today Or$ova), Ptolemaios, III,
8, 4; TP [Tabula Peutingeriana, in: K. Miller, Itineraria Romana,
Stuttgart, 1916] _Tierna_, Proc[opius Caesariensis, Opera (ed.
J. Haury, Leipzig, Teubner[-Verlag], I-III, 1905-1913; re-ed. by
G. Wirth, I, 1959, II, 1963, III, IV, 1964], _Aed._ IV 6,5 <Greek>
Zernes; Ulpian, _Digest._, L, 15, 1, 8 "Zernensium colonia a divo
Traiano deducta", _Not. dignit. orient._ 42, 37 "Zernis", 42, 29
"Transdiernis", CIL, III, 1568 "statio Tsiernensis" (SCIV, IV, 1953,
p. 788), 8277, 2 "Dierna", 14468 "munic. Dier." 12677 "Di.", AA 1913,
p. 371 "Dierna", _Múzeumi és könyvtári értesitö_, II, 1908, p. 18
"Dierna" (TLL = Thesaurus linguae Latinae, Leipzig, 1900ff, onom.,
III, 149; RE = Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertums-
wissenschaft (Pauly-Wissowa), Stuttgart, I, 1893ff, V, 476; SCIV,
IV, p. 786-793.
-- IE radical *der- "to split, crack" (WP = Walde-Pokorny, I, p.
797-803, nr. 3; Tomaschek, _Thr._, II, 2, p. 71 thinks that
the Dacian toponym had the meaning "Durchbruch, Felsspalt"). The
same etymological base _der-n-_ very probable in the case of
_Darnithi_ (genitive?), locality in Dacia (?), in a military diploma
AD 106, CIL, XVI, 160 and in <Greek> Repodernes (Proc.? [= Procopius,
see above]) in Thrace.
Cerna, today's name of a river in the same region (adjacent to
Serbia), the border between the provinces of Banat and Oltenia;
also mentioned in Ptolemy's "Geographia" (I don't remember
exactly whether with the spelling "Tsierna").
>Richard.
George