02-22-2010, 02:40 PM
Quote:That is not disputed. What I actually wrote was ,"We don't know for sure, for example, that PETVAR, as in PETVARIA PARISORVM, does in fact mean 'the fourth". Does it have some other meaning? If not, why does Ptolemy not mention the 1st, 2nd or 3rd parts of the Parisii? Why does it only seem to apply to this one place?
Well, let's be realistic - Ptolemy by no means offers us an exhaustive list of every place name that existed in the ancient world - and while we don't now know why the place was called "Fourth" or "Quarter", there's no reason to believe that the Parisi ever had settlements named "Third", "Second", or "First".
Quote:I have seen this proposed etymology although it was referred to 'Hill of the Foreigners'. But other etymologies are proposed too, eg Hill of the Winds, Head of the Hill or Hill of the Border.
I trust my source for this example (John Koch's "Celtic Culture" encyclopedia) because it generally offers the most up-to-date and widely-accepted etymologies - none of the other ones that you mention seem very likely to me.
Christopher Gwinn
