Some more "m" plant names

Dear Luisma,

In Devon, there is the River Meavy. This is probably the Mavia of George of Ravenna.

What does it mean?

Well, I say it is *awi, a cognate of Basque abi "bilberry", prefixed with the fossilised noun classifier for plants, *m-.

A similar construction is found in the place-name, Mabegondo, Galicia. This seems to be *m-abi-ko-ondo "the settlement at the foot of the hill where bilberries grow". (There is also an Abegondo nearby.)

And then we have Masonsa, a place somewhere in the Castellon region recorded only on coins.

This would appear to be *m-ason-sa "place abounding in nettles".

And Meterkosa, a Roman town located somewhere in the Cuenca region.

This would have been *m-atar-ko-sa "place abounding in scrubland".

Spanish mata "scrub" is a borrowing from Iberian. It is *ata "gorse", prefixed with the *m- noun classifier.

Basque ote "gorse" was earlier *ata/auta, and is found in this form in place-names like Athos, Bearn, and Altes, Catalonia (Autes in 10th C), and Autraka (*atar-aka "place of the gorse scrub"), the town which gave its name to the tribal name, Autrigones.

The final -r in *matar is simply the plural or partitive suffix (now only found in fossilised form in Basque).

Matrona, the Roman name for the River Marne, is *m-atar-ona (-ona being a later Gaulish suffix added to river-names), the meaning being "river which flows through scrubland". And Matisco (Macon, France), is *m-ata-isko "place of gorse".

Now, what about the River Main in Germany, which was known to the Romans as Moenus? This is identical to the River Meon in Hampshire, which was Meonea in 790.

The meaning seems to be "river which flows through woodland" - Basque oi(h)an "forest".

Oh, and yes. There is the River Marron in Cumbria. This was Meran in 1282.

The meaning would have been m-aran "river surrounded by sloe-berries" (Basque aran "sloe-berry").

With best wishes,

Angus J Huck