A hydronym (from , , "water" and , , "name") is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history. It can apply to rivers, lakes, and even oceanic elements.
Hydronymy is that branch of linguistics,which deals with the study and application of proper names of water bodies like rivers,lakes,oceans,and the way of receiving and transmitting of such names through history.
Like most toponyms, as linguistic items, hydronyms are very conservative, with successor peoples often retaining the name given a body of water.
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hydronym (from , , "water" and , , "name") is a proper name of a body of water.
Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history. It can apply to rivers, lakes, and even oceanic elements.
Hydronymy is that branch of linguistics,which deals with the study and application of proper names of water bodies like rivers,lakes,oceans,and the way of receiving and transmitting of such names through history.
Like most toponyms, as linguistic items, hydronyms are very conservative, with successor peoples often retaining the name given a body of water. For example,
MississippiThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
has passed from
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
to contemporary Americans (and then to other languages). Often a given body of water will have several entirely different names given to it by different peoples. For example, and are the
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
and
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
names, respectively, for the same river in
central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
.
Hydronyms from various languages can all share a common etymon. For example, The
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
, Don,
DniesterThe Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe.-Geography:The Dniester rises in Ukraine, near the city of Drohobych, close to the border with Poland, and flows toward the Black Sea. Its course marks part of the border of Ukraine and Moldova, after which it flows through Moldova for , separating the...
, Dnieper and Donets rivers all contain the Scythian name for "river" (cf. , "river, water" in modern Ossetic).
See also
- Old European hydronymy
Old European is the term used by Hans Krahe for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy in Central and Western Europe...
- Rigvedic rivers
Rivers play a prominent part in the hymns of the Rigveda, and consequently in early Vedic religion.-Mythology:The central history of the Rigveda is that of Indra slaying Vritra , liberating the rivers; in a variant of the myth, Indra smashes the stone Vala, liberating the cows that were imprisoned...
- List of river name etymologies
- Toponym