Old english bocian to grant or assign by charter, from book n. Etymology of place the word place open space in a city, square, area, location comes from the old french place from the late latin placea place, spot from the latin platea courtyard, open space, broad street, which is a transliteration of the greek plateia open space in a city, square from the greek adjective plateia. Do the germans ever refer to themselves as from germany or just simply the deutschland. The name was eventually applied by the romans to all germans, and the name germania was given to the land of the germans. It is, however, not suited for learners of the language, and is sometimes even hard to understand for natives. Is there a good online resource to look up the etymology. From the name of various places in the netherlands and germany, for example the village of achterberg in utrecht. Join us on an excursion into the world of eight common words delightfully convoluted backstories. This book updates his earlier placenames of the world. The english word german comes from latin germanus, germani german, originally the name of a specific tribe. Imagine my surprise when i discovered that erwin g. Over 100,000 german translations of english words and phrases. Placenames in the german language area can be classified by the language from which they originate, and by era. Monica cellio says that modern hebrew has this what is your name construction as well.
Popular german books showing 150 of 39,670 siddhartha mass market paperback by. Places are sorted alphabetically according to their german names. Wuppertal wupper dalevalley, karlmarxstadt karl marx city, name for chemnitz during the ddr era, wilhelmshaven williams havenharbor, referring to king william i of prussia. Aharon, which is most likely of unknown egyptian origin. A guide to latin place names and their meanings latinitium. An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard.
Get ideas for baby names or discover your own names history. Usually, such family names are derived from nicknames. Germanic toponyms are the names given to places by germanic peoples and tribes. Social security administration data, the first name german is not a popular baby boys name in colorado. An etymological dictionary of the german language and dwds are great, but they are really references it seems a little strange that i cant find such a book. Meanings of common elements in germanic place names. Derived from old high german holz wood and man man, a name for someone who lived close to a wood or worked with wood. Etymology of the place name chattaroy linguistics stack. Talking to a used book dealer, i couldnt even recall the title. List of german exonyms for places in the czech republic. Browse other questions tagged etymology dictionary placenames or. They are generally classified into four groups, based on the origin of a nickname.
Besides areas with current speakers of germanic languages, many regions with previous germanic speakers or germanic influence had or still have germanic toponymic elements, such as places in northern france, wallonia, poland and northern italy comparative table. However, the name of the westvirginian place may have inspired the naming of a place in washington. German language stack exchange is a bilingual question and answer site for speakers of all levels who want to share and increase their knowledge of the german language. On the etymology of the estonian place names kirna and kernu. Imagine that, only 5 babies in colorado have the same name as you in 1989. If it helps, lets forget the introductory aspect, and think of what is his name. German names follow the same system as most western countries, which is the use of a first name followed by a surname that is passed down from generation to generation, and, in many cases, through marriage. Topographical names were held in low esteem by early place name scholars but their importance was raised in a book by margaret gelling, first published in 1978. This meaning of au earlier spelling ow, owe, ouwe describes settlements. Yarden, and it is derived from yarad meaning descend or flow down.
Etymology of place english words of unexpected greek. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. The name germany and the other similarsounding names above are derived from the latin germania, of the 3rd century bc, a word of uncertain origin. Etymology meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. This discusses the many elements of topographical place names, with updates in 1988 and 1997. German placenames are very commonly a compound of a determinant word bestimmungswort and a common root grundwort, usually in that order. They are often very easy to identify if you either know a little german or know which clues to look for.
With roots in the germanic middle ages, german surnames have been around since the 1100s. We can thus discover much about oldenday words for hills, lakes, and forests by studying the names of presentday villages and towns. Celtic names, used in prehistoric times in the southern and western parts of the german language area. In etymology, german family names were introduced during the late middle ages in the german language area. Find the meaning, history and popularity of given names from around the world. So the word for german possibly comes from a name originally given by west baltic tribes to the vikings. This rich lode of indian and ethnic english, french, scottish, irish, german etc tradition and lore is a browsers paradise.
In round brackets, the contemporary cognate for the. In germany, the official in charge of the church sacristy was the kuester the english equivalent was sexton and kester and koester are variations of that occupational name. Any discussion of the meaning of the name mormon, must start by dealing with a letter published in the times and seasons 4 15 may 1843. The article concerns primarily the towns and villages, but bilingual names for mountains, rivers etc. If youre just looking for a quick explanation of the origin of a word, its also not the.
Caution should always be taken when interpreting placenames. In this post youll find a selection of funny german town names and their historic and linguistic origins, which often feature a surprising mix of. Two absolutely correct answers were collapsed, and i dont know why. While many german records are not available online, these german genealogy databases are a good place to begin researching your german family tree. The place names are derived from low german achter behind and berg mountain, hill. An essential grammar but for the origin and relationship between german words i find etymology very useful for learning, but havent found a guidebook. Biblical place name, both the mountain upon which moses receives the ten commandments from god and the desert where it. Translations of many of the abbreviations and german words found in. Denoted a person who lived near a field, derived from middle english aker or middle high german acker meaning field. German names are used in germany and other german speaking areas such as austria and switzerland. Its a german patronymic name when not from the town, and a german place name in that case.
But if desired, it can take many other aspects into consideration, such as the entry of synonyms, the specification of the part of speech, the possibility of referencing its etymology, the name of the terminologist and the date of the change to the existing terminology or the. With the help of chirlus answer telling me that ortsnamenbuch is the german name for this type of. German translation of place the official collins englishgerman dictionary online. German placenames are very commonly a compound of a determinant word. The origin and etymology of current geographical names was issued in. This book, however, differs from orbis latinus in that it not only contains. The names of many places in the czech lands bohemia, moravia, austrian silesia have evolved during their history. Youve encountered a latin place name and cant find the meaning. Place names as they occur in german documents are not really misspelled. The river has lent its name to the country to the east in german, swedish, finnish, estonian, polish and slovene this is only the name of the river, with the name of the country taking a different form. Such names could have been used to describe neighbouring people whose language was incomprehensible to baltic peoples. Available resources include german birth, death and marriage records, as well as census, immigration, military, and other genealogy records. Toponymy itself is a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds.
Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus. In proceedings of the xixth international congress of onomastic sciences. So far it looks like old and middle english used a phrase similar to german and scandinavian countries. Brewers suggests it is from an opinion of early settlers that the place was idyllic in the wilds.
Many placenames derive from prominent features of the local landscape. In a more restricted sense, the term toponymy refers to an inventory of toponyms, while the discipline researching such names is referred to as toponomastics. A boon for genealogical research and an interesting browse for the merely curious, this detailed dictionary is an englishlanguage reference for more than 15,000 german family names, including variant spellings as well as the meaning and origin of each name. The name appears to be a gaulish term, and there is no evidence that it was ever used by the germanic tribes themselves.
A concise german etymological dictionary book, 1951. The oldest mentions i could find are a park in pennsylvania, which started as a picnic grounds in 1878 and eventually became an amusement park. Kallasmaa, marja 1998 on the role of folk etymology in the development of place names. The landscape of placenames by margaret gelling and ann cole. Identifying place names in german documents genealogy. To start, simply click on the button to generate 10 random names. Latin place names found in the imprints of books printed before 1801 and their. Latvian linguist konstantinos karulis proposes that the word may be based on the indoeuropean word wek speak, from which derive old prussian wackis war cry or latvian vekskis. Karlstadt, for example, derives from the root stadt, meaning city, and a personal name, karl. The meaning and history of first names behind the name.
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