Welsh Chwant ‘Desire’ and Trisantona ‘River Trent’ in Tacitus
The article deals with the ancient name of the longest river solely in England, the Trent, fl owing past Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham to the North Sea. In a passage that has raised debate and led to a number of misinterpretations in literature, Tacitus recorded it as (emended) Trisantona, which has...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Navarra |
| Repositorio: | Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/113883 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10171/113883 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | латинский язык валлийский язык кельтские языки «Historia Brittonum» топонимия этимология Тацит река Трент Latin language Welsh language Celtic languages Historia Brittonum Tacitus Place-names Etymology River Trent |
| Sumario: | The article deals with the ancient name of the longest river solely in England, the Trent, fl owing past Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham to the North Sea. In a passage that has raised debate and led to a number of misinterpretations in literature, Tacitus recorded it as (emended) Trisantona, which has been explained from Old Irish sét ‘course’ and Welsh hynt ‘path’ as ‘trespasser, one that overfl ows’ (of a stream liable to fl ood). Trisantona or the like would be the name of other rivers, including the Tarrant in Dorset and Tarannon or Trannon in midWales. Yet the interpretation ‘trespasser’ has grave phonetic and semantic defects. They are removed by a new etymology on the basis of Old Irish sét ‘treasure’ (Modern Irish seoid) and Welsh chwant ‘desire’ from hypothetical Common Celtic *suanto-. The paper provides textual, historical and linguistic arguments supporting this etymological interpretation. Trisantona or (preferably) reconstructed *Trisuantona (from *Tresuantona) would thus (instead of ‘trespasser, fl ooder’) mean ‘she of great desire, she who is much loved.’ The implication is that the Trent (like the English rivers Dee ‘goddess’ or Brent ‘she who is exalted’) was regarded as a Celtic female deity, a passionate and perhaps dangerous entity. |
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