--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "pe_ehlers" <pe_ehlers@...> wrote:
> Dear members!
>
> Writing my diploma thesis on Latin place-names in Britain I came
> across the Celtic suffix -io.
> It is used as a derivational suffix and can either be added to
> adjectives
> (cf. the place-name of Coccio < brit.*cocco- 'red' + *-io, now
> Edgeworth, Lancashire)
> or
> to nouns (cf. the place-name of Gobannio < brit. *gobannia 'river
of
> the blacksmiths' + *io, now Abergavenny, Monmouthshire).
>
> Unfortunately, I could neither find out anything about the meaning
> nor about the origin of the suffix.
>
> I would be extremely grateful for any help or advice.
>
> With kindest regards,
>
> Peter Ehlers
*******
Your first etymology is interesting, if true.
I find at:
http://marikavel.net/lieux-wxyz.htm
"selon Rivet & Smith, Place-Names of Roman Britain, p 310 :
- Itinéraire d'Antonin, 482-1 (Iter X) : COCCIO.
Explication étymologique : "La Rouge", qualificatif tiré apparemment
de la couleur d l'eau de la riviere teintée par l'oxyde de fer".
I suspect this is based simply on the Welsh 'coch' "red'.
But this derives from L. 'coccum' "scarlet". When, I have no idea,
but as I say, it would be interesting if it happened early enough to
produce a river name that shows up in the Antonine Intinerary
(original edition probably beginning of the 3rd century, according
to the 11th Britannica). My guess is that the "red" etymology is
simply wrong.
Dan Milton