Re: British Suffix -io

> 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.

I have seen this etymology defended recently (see, for instance,
Xaviere Delamarre's Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise) - apparently
Latin coccum (or perhaps some other related Italic word) was borrowed
into Celtic a lot earlier than previously thought. The British river
name Coccuueda would perfectly match the Modern Welsh word
cochwedd "red appearance", anyway - and there's nothing saying that
such cocco- place/river names weren't coined relatively late in the
game, after the word had been borrowed into Celtic.

- Chris Gwinn