> 11th Britannica:
> "Colonized by the Saxons in 1178, it then received its German name
> of Klausenburg, from the old word Klause, signifying a "mountain
> pass"."
> Dan
Older German variant: Klusenburg (where [u:] not yet [au]!).
(Compare the coexisting 2nd names: Klusner & Klausner, with
the same etymology, Klause < clausa "eingehegtes Grundstück"!)
In Hungary's medieval official documents (after 1173),
attestations like these:
civitatis Coluswar (along with Colusmonostora > Kolozsmonostor
"monastery of Cluj", in Romanian: Cluj-Mãnã$tur) ("monasterium
beatae virginis de Coluswar fundatio sancti regis Ladizlai
existit") NB: Benediktinerabtei von Alt-Klausenburg (Appesdorf)
1183: Culusiense / 1282: villa Kuluswar /
1246: Kulusuar / 1250: Culuswar / 1275: Clwsuar /
1313: Kuluswar / castrum Clus(a) / castrenses de Clus /
Cluz / Claudiopolis / after 1316 (under king Charles
Robert d'Anjou) Civitas Clausensis / also: Kluzs, Kuluzs,
1285: Kuluzsvár, Kaluzsvár
[uar, war for Hung. vár "Burg, citadel, castrum, fortress"]
Earlier than the 12th c. no attestation. (BTW, those "mountains"
ar in fact low hills, hillocks. The incipient "castrum" might have
been between such hillocks) (In Czech, Slovakian, Serbo-Croatian:
Kluž, Polish: Kluż [the same pronunciation as in Romanian]).
The Hungarian Wikipedia also mentions the < Slavic [kluz^]
(see spelling: kluzs) < (Middle High) German klus hypothesis:
http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolozsv%C3%A1r
BUT: it is also possible that this place name is reminiscent
of the name of the 1st iSpán (in German Gespan) of this
"castrum": some guy called... Colus (in the medieval Latin
of the Hungarian documents). Only a hypothesis.
George