Re: What color is the Rother?

At 8:59:20 PM on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, dgkilday57 wrote:

> The river Rother of Derbyshire (Roder, -ir, -yr, -ur 13th
> cent., Rudde 1330, Rodelle 1330, Rother 1577) is explained
> by Ekwall (English River-Names 348) as 'chief river',
> British *dubro- 'water' with intensive *ro- from *pro-.
> Cameron (Place-Names of Derbyshire 15) agrees with this
> analysis but suggests 'great river' as a better translation.

> I have never been there, but maps suggest that the Rother
> is not a particularly great river, nor the chief river of
> Derbyshire.

It did get Rotherham named after it, and it seems to be
fairly wide. It suffered a great deal from
industrialization; I suspect that it would be hard to get a
good idea of its early appearance and importance (or lack
thereof) from the modern river.

> Also, the contraction of the name required is
> rather violent, since Dubris is still Dover.

On the other hand, PrW *duβr > MCorn. dour, ModW. dwr.

Brian