Re: Drwnt

At 2:05:01 PM on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:

> This puzzles me:
> In Jürgen Udolph
> Die Stellung der Gewässernamen Polens
> innerhalb der alteuropäischen Hydronymie, p. 112,
> I find (my transl.)
> "Already at the beginning of the century J. Rozwadowski
> had pointed to onomastic parallels, the oldest attempt
> AFAIK comes from R. Ferguson (The River-Names of Europe,
> London etc 1862, p. 141), who - besides erroneous results
> - also connected Drwe,ca/Drewenz

[etc.]

> OK, so typical Old European, ie. in this interpretation
> Venetic names.
> How come these are left out of the list:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Derwent

Watts s.n. <Derwent>:

'Oak river, river in the oakwood'. PrW *der-wïnt, a
derivative of Brit *derwa: 'an oak-tree'. Possibly a
reshaping by popular etymology of an earlier Old European
participial formation on the IE root *drew 'to run' seen
in continental r.ns. such as Drewenz, East Prussia,
<Drawanta> 1243, Durance, a tributary of the Rhone,
<Druantia> 1st Pliny, and other examples in France, Drän,
Carinthia, Austria, <Trewina> 890, Drava, Croatia,
<Dravos> Strabo, Traun, Bavaria, <Druna> 788 etc.

Brian