List of river name etymologies
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This page lists the various etymologies (origins) of the names of rivers around the world.
Contents |
[edit] Africa
- Apies: from Afrikaans meaning "little apes"
- Berg: from Afrikaans meaning "mountain"
- Breede: from Afrikaans meaning "wide"
- Escravos: from Portuguese meaning "slaves"
- Forcados: from Portuguese meaning "forked"
- Komati: from siSwati meaning "cow"
- Mooi: from Afrikaans meaning "beautiful"
- Niger: from the Tuareg phrase gher n gheren meaning "river of rivers", shortened to ngher.
- Nile: Greek Neilos (Νεῖλος), meaning "river valley"[1]
- Nossob: from Khoikhoi meaning "black river"
- Ohlanga: from Zulu meaning "reed"
- Olifants: from Afrikaans meaning "elephants"
- Omi Osun: from Yoruba meaning "waters of the spirit-goddess Ọṣun"
- Palala: from Sotho meaning "one that inundates"
- Vaal: from Afrikaans meaning "dull"
[edit] Antarctica
- Alph River: name is from the opening passage in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, Kubla Khan[2]
- Onyx River: so named because of the relationship of the 15th, 14th, 25th and 24th letters of the alphabet in Onyx[3]
[edit] Asia
- Angara: Buryat angarkhai "the mouth of a wild beast"
- Aravand-rud: Persian: "fast river"
- Brahmaputra: Hindi: "Son of Brahma".
- Chang Jiang: Chinese "long river"
- Yangtze: Chinese "ocean child"
- Dongjiang: Chinese "east river"
- Huang He: Chinese "yellow river"
- Indus River: Sanskrit Sindhu generically means "river, stream, ocean"[4]
- Mekong: Thai Mae Khong (แม่ โขง), "mother of all rivers"
- Ob: Komi: "snow, snowdrift, place of snow"
- Pearl River Zhu Jiang: Chinese named after a sandy or stony island in the middle of the river called "Sea Pearl" (now reduced to a bank in the river)
- Sefid-rud: Persian: "White river"
- Wang Thong from Thai วังทอง, "Gold Palace"
[edit] Australasia
- Murray River: named for Sir George Murray, then British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies[5]
- Waikato River: from Māori, meaning "flowing water"
[edit] Europe
- See also Old European hydronymy.
- Avon: Brythonic meaning "river"
- Avonbeg: Irish meaning "small river"
- Avonmore: Irish meaning "big river"
- Awbeg: Irish meaning "small river"
- Cam: Brythonic meaning "crooked"
- Clanrye: Irish meaning "harbour of the king"
- Clwyd: Welsh meaning "hurdle"
- Danube: Latin Danuvius, from Iranian (Scythian or Sarmatian) dānu- 'river', of Indo-European origin
- Argeş: from Greek or maybe Thracian "arges" = "bright"
- Bistriţa: Slavic "bistrica" = "fast flowing"
- Caraş: Turkish "kara" = "black", "dark"
- Drave: in Latin "Dravus", of Thracian or Illyrian origin, probably from PIE *dhreu = "to flow, to fall"
- Ialomiţa: Slavic "jalov" = "barren"
- Mureş;: Dacian "mur" = "murky"
- Prahova: Slavic "prah"="waterfall" or "prah"="dust"
- Siret: ancient Thracian "Seretos", probably from PIE *sreu = "to flow"
- Don (Aberdeenshire, Scotland): from Celtic Devona 'goddess'
- Emajõgi: Estonian meaning "mother river"
- Erne: Irish after the name of the mythical princess, Éirne
- Foyle: Irish meaning "estuary of the lip"
- Guadalquivir: from the Arabic wadi al-kabir, or "great river"
- Hayle: from Cornish Heyl "estuary".
- Kymijoki: Old Finnish for kymi, "huge river"
- Lagan: Irish meaning "river of the low-lying district"
- Llobregat: from Latin Rubricatus "red river".
- Mersey: Anglo Saxon meaning "boundary river"
- Ness: Old Norse meaning "isthmus"
- Quoile: Irish meaning "the narrow"
- Rhine: from the archaic German Rhine, which in turn comes from Middle High German: Rin, from the Proto-Indo-European root *reie- ("to flow, run").[6]
- The Reno River in Italy shares the same etymology.
- River Severn: Latin "Sabrina" from an Old British river goddess of that name, becoming "Hafren" in modern Welsh
- Slaney: Irish meaning "river of health"
- Thames: Latin "Tamesis" from Brythonic meaning "dark river"
- The River Thame and River Tamar, and probably the three rivers called River Tame, have a similar etymological root
- Tyne: Brythonic meaning "river"
- Torne älv: Likely of Finnish origin, meaning "spear"[7]
- Volga River: Slavic влага "vlaga", волога "vologa" meaning "wetness", "humidity"[8] alt. Finnic valkia "white"[8] alt. Russian velikij "great" [9][10]
- Wear: Brythonic meaning "water"
[edit] North America
- Athabasca: From the Woods Cree word aðapaskāw, "[where] there are plants one after another".[11]
- Bow: After the reeds growing along its banks, which were used by the local Indians to make bows.
- Brazos: From the Spanish Los Brazos de Dios, or "the arms of God". There are several different explanations for the name, all involving it being the first water to be found by desperately thirsty parties.
- Canadian River: The etymology is unclear. The name may have come from French-Canadian traders and hunters who traveled along the river, or early explorers may have thought that the river flowed into Canada.
- Chattahoochee: from Creek cato hocce (/ʧató hóːʧːi/), "marked rock".[12]
- Colorado: Spanish for "red-colored; reddish."
- Columbia: Named for Captain Robert Gray’s ship Columbia Rediviva, allegedly the first to travel up the river.
- Cumberland: Named for Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.
- Delaware: After the Bay, named for Thomas West, Baron De la Warre, first English colonial governor of Virginia.[13]
- Fraser: Named for Simon Fraser, who confirmed it was a separate river from the Columbia.
- Hackensack: probably from Unami Delaware ahkinkèshaki, "place of sharp ground".[14]
- Hiwassee: from the Cherokee meaning "stone wall", or from an Eastern Algonquian language meaning "beyond the hill" (e.g., Abenaki awasadenek).[15]
- Hudson: named for Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Netherlands, who explored it in 1609.
- Loup: French for "wolf", after the Pawnee "wolf people" (Skidi band).
- Mackenzie: After Alexander MacKenzie, the Scots-Canadian explorer.
- Mississippi: Ojibwe misi-ziibi, "big river".[16]
- Missouri: Named for the Missouri Indians, who lived along the banks. Their name comes from the Illinois mihsoori, meaning "dugout canoe".[17]
- Nelson: Named for Robert Nelson, a ship's master who died at the mouth of the river in 1612.
- Ottawa: Named for the Ottawa people, a community of the Algonquin nation, who lived along the river until 1685.
- Peace: After Peace Point, the location of the ratification of the Treaty of the Peace.
- Platte: French Rivière Plate ("Flat River"), a calque of the Chiwere name ñįbraske ("flattened water").[18]
- Potomac: From the Patowamek tribe noted by Captain John Smith.[19]
- Republican: Named for the Pawnee band known as "the Republicans".
- Río Grande: Spanish for "big river".
- Saint-Laurent: French for Saint Lawrence.
- Saskatchewan: From the Cree term Cree kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, meaning "swift flowing river".
- Schuylkill: from the Dutch Schulen-kill, meaning "hidden river".
- Stanislaus: named after Estanislao
- Susquehanna: Named after the Susquehannock Indians, whose name derives from an Algonquian word meaning "people at the falls", "roily water people",[20] or "muddy current".[21]
- Tennessee: Named for the Cherokee town of Tanasi, whose etymology is unknown.[22]
- Wabash: English spelling of French Ouabache, from Miami-Illinois waapaahšiiki, "it shines white".[23]
- Yukon: from an Athabaskan language (e.g., Koyukon yookkene, Lower Tanana yookuna).[24]
[edit] South America
- Amazon River: Greek (after the Amazons) alt. Indian (from Amassona 'boat destroyer') [25] [26]
- Río Calle-Calle: Mapudungun for "lot of Iridaceaes"
- Río Cochrane: after Lord Thomas Cochrane who served in the Chilean Navy
- Río Futaleufú: Mapudungun for "big river"
- Río Ibañez: after Carlos Ibáñez del Campo former president of Chile
- Río Imperial: after the old city of Carahue, formelry known as Imperial.
- Paraná River: Guarani "Copious River"[27]
- Río de la Plata: Spanish for "Silver River"
- Rio Roosevelt: after Theodore Roosevelt
- Río Valdivia: after the Spanish conquistador of Chile Pedro de Valdivia
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Nile#Etymology of the word Nile
- ^ Alph River
- ^ Antarctic Explorers
- ^ Indus#History
- ^ Murray River#Exploration
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ Svenskt ortnamnslexikon ("Swedish Place-Name Dictionary"), 2003, pp. 322.
- ^ a b Volga river#Nomenclature
- ^ Room, Adrian (2006). Placenames of the World. McFarland
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=M1JIPAN-eJ4C&pg=PA398&dq=volga+river+western+russia&sig=-nZtSyf44KS3U6327k7LP3mFCck
- ^ Bright (2004:52)
- ^ Bright (2004:89)
- ^ "Delaware". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Delaware. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
- ^ Bright (2004:160)
- ^ Bright (2004:174)
- ^ Bright (2004:290)
- ^ McCafferty, Michael. 2004. Correction: Etymology of Missouri. American Speech, 79.1:32
- ^ Koontz, John. "Etymology". Siouan Languages. http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz/faq/etymology.htm. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
- ^ Bright (2004:396)
- ^ Bright (2004:466)
- ^ Kelton, Dwight H. (1888). Indian Names of Places Near the Great Lakes. Detroit, MI: Detroit Free Press Printing Company
- ^ Bright (2004:488)
- ^ Bright (2004:537)
- ^ Bright (2004:583)
- ^ Amazon River
- ^ Amazon Rainforest#Etymology
- ^ Places to visit in Paraguay when visiting Iguassu Falls
[edit] Bibliography
- Bright, William (2004). Native American Place Names of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
