CHAPTER VII.

QUALITY OF WATERS.

There are a number of river-names in which the sense of clearness, brightness, or transparency is to be traced. From the Sansc. _cand_, to shine, Lat. _candeo_, Welsh, Ir. Arm., and Obs. Gael. _can_, white, clear, pure, we get the following. But the Gael. and Ir., _caoin_, soft, gentle, is a word liable to intermix.

1. _England._ The CANN. Essex. The KEN or KENT. Westmoreland. The KENNE. Devonshire. _Scotland._ The KEN. Joins the Dee. The CONN. CONA of Ossian. CANDY burn. Lanarkshire. _Wales._ The CAIN. Merioneth. _Germany._ CONE, 9th cent., now the COND. _Russia._ The KANA. Gov. Yeniseisk. _India._ The CANE or KEN--here?

2. _With the ending en._ _Scotland._ The CONAN. Dingwall. _Italy._ The CANTIANO. Pont. States.

3. _With the ending er._ _England._ The CONDER. Lancashire. The CONNER. Cornwall. _Switzerland._ The KANDER.

4. _Compounded with vi, wy, river._ _Wales._ CONOVIUS ant. The CONWAY.

The Old Celtic word _vind_, found in many ancient names of persons and places, as Vindo, Vindus, Vindanus,[59] Vindobona, Vindobala, &c., represents the present Welsh _gwyn_ (=_gwynd_), and the Ir. _finn_ (=_find_), white. "The Celt. _vind_," observes Gluck, "comes from the same root as the Goth. _hveit_; it stands for _cvind_ with an intrusive _n_; the root is _cvid_ = the Germ. root _hvit_." The meaning in river-names is bright, clear, pure.

1. _England._ The VENT. Cumberland. The QUENNY. Shropshire. _Wales._ The GWYNEDD (=GWYND?) _Ireland._ The FINN. Ulster. _France._ The VENDÉE. Dep. Vendée. _Russia._ The VIND(AU) or WIND(AU).

2. _With the ending en._ _Scotland._ The FINNAN. Inverness.

3. _With the ending er._ _England._ The lake WINDER(MERE)?[60] _Ireland._ WINDERIUS; _Ptolemy_, a river not identified.

4. _With the ending rn, p. 34._ _Scotland._ The FINDHORN. Inverness.

5. _With the ending el._ _England._ The WANDLE. Surrey. _Germany._ FINOLA, 8th cent., now the VEHNE.

From the Welsh _llwys_, clear, pure, Gael. _las_, to shine, Gael. and Ir. _leus_, light, cognate with Old Norse _lios_, clear, pure, Lat. _luceo_, &c., I derive the following. The Gael. _lâ_, _lo_, day, must, I think, contain the root.

1. _England._ The LIZA. Cumberland. _Scotland._ The LOSSIE. Elgin. _France._ The LEZ. Dep. Herault. _Belgium._ The LESSE. _Germany._ The LOOSE. Pruss. Sax.

2. _With the ending en._ _France._ The LIZENA. _Sweden._ The LJUSNE. Falls into the Gulf of Bothnia.

3. _With the ending er._ _Germany._ LESURA, 11th cent., now the LIESER. LYSERA, 10th cent., now the LEISER.

From the root of the above, by the prefix _g_, is formed Gael. and Welsh _glas_, blue or green, (perhaps originally rather transparent), and the Old Norse _gladr_, Old High Germ. _glatt_, shining.

_Scotland._ The GLASS. Inverness. GLASS. A lake, Rosshire. _Germany._ The GLATT. Hohenzollern Sig. _Switzerland._ GLATA, 8th cent. The GLATT.

Also from the same root come Gael., Ir., and Arm. _glan_, Welsh _glain_, pure, clear, Eng. _clean_.

_England._ The GLEN. Northumberland. The GLEN. Lincolnshire. The CLUN. Shropshire. _France._ The GLANE. _Germany._ GLANA, 8th cent. The GLAN, two rivers, and the GLON, three rivers. _Switzerland._ The KLÖN, a small but beautiful lake in the Klönthal--here, or to _klein_, little? _Italy._ CLANIS ant., now the CHIANA. CLANIUS ant., in Campania. _Illyria._ The GLAN, in Carinthia.

From the Old High Germ. _hlutar_, Mod. Germ. _lauter_, pure, Förstemann derives the following rivers of Germany. Hence also the name of Lauterbrunnen (_brunnen_, fountain), in Switzerland.

_Germany._ HLUTR(AHA), 7th cent. The LAUTER, the LUDER, the LUTTER. The SOMMERLAUTER in Wirtemberg seems to merit the title of pureness only in summer.

The following names I think can hardly be referred to the same origin as the above, though according to Lhuyd, who derives them from Welsh _gloew_, clear, and _dwr_, water, they would have the same meaning.

_England._ The LOWTHER. Westmoreland. _Scotland._ The LAUDER. Berwickshire. _France._ The LAUTER.

In the Gael. and Ir. _ban_, white, we may probably find the meaning of the following.

_Ireland._ The BANN. Three rivers. _Scotland._ The BANN(OCK) by Bannockburn. _Bohemia._ The BAN(ITZ).

Of the two following names the former may be referred to the Welsh _claer_, and the latter to the Swed. _klar_, both same as Eng. _clear_.

_Ireland._ The CLARE. Connaught. _Sweden._ The KLARA (_â_, river).

From the Welsh _têr_, pure, clear, we may get the following. The root is found in Sansc. _tar_, to penetrate, whence _taras_, transparent.

1. _Italy._ The TARO. Joins the Po. _Siberia._ The TARA. Joins the Tobol.

2. _With the ending en._ _England._ The TEARNE. Shropshire. The DEARNE. Yorkshire. _France._ The TARN. Joins the Garonne.

3. _With the ending es._ _Hungary._ The TARISA.

The following two rivers of Germany may, as suggested by Förstemann, be referred to Old High Germ. _flât_, pure, bright.

1. _Germany._ FLAD(AHA), 8th cent. Not identified.

2. _With the ending enz._ _Germany._ FLADINZ, 11th cent., now the FLADNITZ.

The root _bil_ I have, in river-names generally, referred at p. 84 to the Celtic _biol_, water. But in the Slavonic districts we may also think of the Slav. _biala_, white, though we cannot say but that even there the Celtic word may intermix.

_Germany._ The BILA in Bohemia. The BIALA in Silesia. _Russia._ The BIELAYA. Joins the Kama. The BIALY. Joins the Narew.

From the Old High Germ. _swarz_, Mod. Germ. _schwarz_, black, are the names of several rivers of Germany, as the SCHWARZA, the SCHWARZAU, the SCHWARZBACH, &c. Also in Norway we have two rivers called SVART ELV, and in Sweden the SVART AN, which falls into the Mälar Lake. From the Old Norse _doeckr_, dark, may be the DOKKA in Norway, but for the DOCKER of Lancashire the Gael. _doich_, swift, may be more suitable.

The Welsh _du_, Gael. _dubh_, black, probably occurs in river-names, but I have taken, p. 36, the meaning of water, as found in Obs. Gael. _dob_, to be the general one. The Welsh _dulas_, dark or blackish blue, is found in the DOWLES of Shropshire, and in several streams of Wales. The DOUGLAS of Lanarkshire shews the original form of the word, from _du_, black, and _glas_, blue.

The root _sal_ I have taken at p. 76 to have in some cases the simple meaning of water. But in the following the quality of saltness comes before us as a known characteristic.

_Germany._ SALZ(AHA), 8th cent. The SALZA by Salzburg. SALISUS, 8th cent., now the SELSE. The SALZE. Joins the Werre. _Hungary._ The SZALA.[61] Falls into Lake Balaton.

Of an opposite character are the following, which we may refer to Welsh _melus_, Gael. and Ir. _milis_, sweet, _millse_, sweetness. Some other rivers, as the ancient MELAS in Asia Minor, now the Kara-su (Black river), and three rivers of the same name in Greece, must be referred to Gr. {melas}, black.

_Germany._ MILZISSA, 8th cent., now the Mülmisch. MILSIBACH, 11th cent. _Portugal._ MELSUS ant. (Strabo).

FOOTNOTES:

[59] The three first are names of persons, and to them we might perhaps refer the present family names WINDOW, WINDUS, VINDIN; though Windo and Winidin were also ancient German names.--(_Förstemann's Altdeutsches Namenbuch._) The Welsh name GWYN and the Irish FINN represent the later form of the word.

[60] Or, as I have elsewhere derived it, from the man's name Winder, still found in the district.

[61] The waters of Lake Balaton are described as "slightly salt," and I assume from the name that the Szala is the river from which its saltness is derived.