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* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica

* Didier Audinot, Dictionnaire des cités disparues ... : page 238 : Lesneven; page 239 : Ploudaniel; page 241 : Saint-Frégant;

* Rivet & Smith, p. 429 : 

SOURCE

Ptolemy, II,3,4 : Okellou akron ( = OCELLI PROMONTORIUM); variante : Okelou ( = OCELI).

DERIVATION. For *ocelo- 'headland, promontory, spur', see ALAUNOCELUM. Ptolemy (or more probably, his Latin informants) did not understand the senseof this, which is duplicated by Greek akron 'promontory'; he should more properly have set Ocelum down as a simple nominative to which akron is in apposition (as he did in the following name). It is however just possible that the genitive is correctly used, in which case we have the divine name Ocelus (see ALAUNOCELUM).

IDENTIFICATION. Either Flamborough Head or Spurn Head, Yorkshire. If the literal meaning applied, the former might be preferable, since Spurn, at least in its present state after much erosion, is not physically notable. For reasons discussed above, however, (p. 138) with refeence to the river name ABUS (q.v.), Spurn seems more likely.

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Soit le Flamborough Head, soit le Spurn Head, en Yorshire, avec une préférence pour le second.

* Rivet & Smith; p. 429 : 

SOURCES

- Ptolemy II, 3, 2 : Damnonion to kai Okrinon akron ( = DAMNONIUM SIVE OCRINUM PROMONTORIUM), var. Okrion (= OCRIUM, preferred by Millier); again in II, 3, 3

- Marcian II, 45 : Damnion akron (= DAMNIUM cape) to kai Okrion kaloumenon (= which is also called OCRIUM)

DERIVATION. Ptolemy here (as for other principal capes which mark the 'corners' of the island) gives alternative names, each of the pairs containing - as argued in Chapter III (p. 115) - an archaic and a more modem name. Ocrinum is the more archaic of the present pair, and had probably been preserved in the tradition stemming from Pytheas. The name does not appear elsewhere. It may be an ancient Celtic or even pre-Indo-European name based on a root related to Greek Okris 'rugged point, prominence ', or it may be that Pytheas first named it with a form actually derived from the Greek word, which would then have had no currency in Britain. Remote but possible analogues are provided by Interocrium > Antrodoco (Rieti, Italy), and by Okra (= Ocra), a peak in the Julian Alps mentioned by Ptolemy II, 12, I and III, I, I, in whose area Pliny NH III, 133, locates a Subocrini people.

IDENTIFICATION. The reference is clearly to the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall, but whether to Lizard Point itself is not so certain. Professer C. Thomas has drawn our attention to the fact that what strikes the seafarer is not the headland but the hazardous reef called The Manacles, off the eastern side of the peninsula, which would fit the Greek word admirably. This would be especially true for someone approaching from the east, as Hawkes (Pytheas : Europe and the Greek Explorers, Oxford, 1977) argues that Pytheas did on his return journey; and this in turn would also explain why at this corner of the British triangle the names of two headlands (Belerium and Ocrinum) were preserved in the record.

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Ce nom constitue un doublet de celui de Dumnoniorum Promontarium. Voir Lizard (Cap)

Rivet & Smith, se référant à des hypothèses plus anciennes, pensent que ce nom serait une appellation 'grecque' du cap, ou des falaises situées en arrière du cap lui même.

JCE : on peut alors remarquer que Dumnoniorum est un nom issu d'un ethnonyme, et que celui-ci désignerait alors "le cap des Dumnonii", mais que *Akr-n est un nom de géographie descriptive, ciblée et restrictive au site lui même, qui peut très bien entre une racine indo-européenne, signifiant sommet, hauteur, falaise, aussi bien en grec qu'en celtique, voir d'autres langues dérivées du même tronc.. 

Cette ville autrefois importante, entourée par un impressionnant système de défense en terre de la fin du onzième siècle, a été une colline fortifiée de l'Age de Fer, un bourg saxon et une ville normande. C'est ici que, en 1070, Guillaume le Conquérant a gratifié et relevé son armée de ses engagements. Dans le même siècle furent construits un château et une cathédrale. Cette dernière, du fait de la froidure du site et des querelles entre l'armée et le clergé, fut abandonnée( les fouilles révèlent sa magnificence passée), et une nouvelle cathédrale fut construite à Salisbury. Old Sarum perdit de l'importance et en 1705 fut acquise par la famille Pitt.

Extrait de la plaquette éditée par 

Department of Environment. 

1976

This once important township, encircled by impressive late eleventh century earthworks, has been an Iron Age hill fort, a Saxon burgh and a Norman town. Here, in 1070, William the Conqueror rewarded and dismissed his army. In the same century a castle and a cathedral were built. The latter, owing to the bleakness of the site and to quarrels betwen military and clergy, was abandoned (the excavations reveal its former magnificence), and a new cathedral was built in Salisbury. Old Sarum declined in importance and in 1705 was acquired by the Pitt family.

* Rivet & Smith, p. 430 : 

SOURCES

- Ptolémée, II,3,10 :  'Olikana, une ville des Brigantes; variante 'Olokana;

- Ravenna, 107₅ : OLERICA;

- Notitia Dignitatum, XL,55  : Praefectus alae primae Herculae, OLENACO (variante : ELENACO);

 Ravenna 106₅₉ (= R&C no) is hardly in question here. Although R&C give this as Alicuna, var. Alunna, Schnetz in his text reads Aluna, which he notes is easily emended to Alauna; and gives as the only variant Alicinca, but nowhere mentions R&C's 'Alicuna'. We refer this to ALAUNA⁸.

It can be taken as fairly certain that the above three entries refer to the same place. They agree on Ol-; there are no other Ol- names in Britain and very few abroad, so it is highly unlikely that we have two (or much less, three) different Ol- places in a limited area of north-west England where the texts place them. What we know of the texts allows us to say that ND is likely to be nearly right, Ravenna generally the most corrupt, and Ptolemy less wholly trustworthy than has hitherto been believed. If we start with the possibility that ND's Olenaco is nearly right, Ravenna's Olerica is easily corrected to agree with it; -ri- is a miscopying of -na-, and final -a is an error for -o, as often. As for Ptolemy, one observes that at II, 14, 4 (Pannonia Superior) he has Olimacon (= Olimacum), which Müller and others think is for Alicano of AI 261₉ or Halicano of AI 262₄ (now Dolnja Lendava,Yugoslavia); if this is so, Ptolemy has produced a metathesis of c.. . n to n. . .c, misread in turn (in a Latin text)  as m. . . c, giving his Olimacum. This name is Ligano in Ravenna 57₆, which assures us of c. . . n (represented as g. . .n) being correct in this name. It is then at least possible that Ptolemy in listing British Olenacum made the same metathesis, producing Olicana. This is a further — scribal — reason for thinking that the three names are inseparable. That Olicana has been traditionally accepted and that Ilkley has been derived from it (despite objections) is a tribute to Ptolemy's authority, but need not weigh with us.

DERIVATION. If Olenacum is right, it has no easy etymology. The -acum suffix (see BRAVONIACUM) suggests that we should look for a personal name as a base; as in Epiacum, Sulloniacis and possibly Eburacum, the suffix conveys 'estate of, property of'. GPN 239-40 offers a number of personal names based on Ollo- (always with -//-), including e.g. Ollecnos, but there seem to be no place-names related to these. Tacitus in Annals IV, 72 (concerning A.D. 28) mentions a centurion Olennius. The most one can say is that the name possibly means 'property of' a man whose name was *Olen-.

If it should be thought that Ravenna's Olerica has some merit, there is an analogue to hand in Gaulish Olericium > Lirey (Aube, France), on which see Holder II. 843 and Whatmough DAG 607; this name might contain a Celtic *oler(i)ca 'swan', as R&C think, though it is not easy to see how a simple noun like this could be a place-name (strictly, a fort-name) without suffix.

IDENTIFICATION. As noted above, the identification of Ptolemy's Olicana with Ilkley has no etymological basis and we have suggested another name for it (see VERBEIA). The position given by Ptolemy suits the Roman fort at Elslack, Yorkshire (SD 9249) equally well, and this also provides a site with a fort of suitable size and late occupation for ND's Olenacum. This immediately follows Bremetenacum in the list (and is only three places from it in Ravenna) and so is unlikely to represent Old Carlisle, for which we suggest MAGLONA (q.v.).

* Rivet & Smith, p. 431 : 

OMIRE of Ravenna 106₁₀ (= R&C 25, conflated with the next entry, TEDERTIS): for -omi as the last syllables of another name, see SORVIODUNUM (Old sarum, Wiltshire)

* Rivet & Smith, p. 431 : 

SOURCE

- Ravenna 106₁₈ (= R&C 40) : ONNA

DERIVATION. This name is inseparable from the next, Onnum (Onno), and may well be *Onno too, since Ravenna often confuses a/o; or Onna/Onnum might represent Latin plural and singlular forms of the same name, as in Maia / Maio. Several etymologies have been proposed for the northerly Onnum. That favoured by Jackson in JRS, XXXVIII (1948), 57, is British *onno- 'ash-tree', citing Gaulish onno glossed 'fraxinus', Welsh onn (to which Williams adds Cornish onnen, Breton ounnen and Old Irish huinn). Williams notes the frequency with which trees are associated with river-names. This etymology for both British names is, therefore, possible; the ash grows both on Hadrian's Wall and in Hampshire; and the tree is commonly used in Anglo-Saxon toponymy. However, we have no clear evidence of the use of a name for 'ash' in Celtic toponymy in other regions in ancient times; and rivers and places are not named in Celtic with a tree-word used alone, since we usually fmd such words compounded (Daruveda) or with suffîx (Aballava, Derventio, Vernalis). Jackson's view must therefore be regarded as unsubstantiated. A second possibility, mentioned by Williams, is that a root *ond- 'stone, rock' is in question (Irish ond, onn), and for the topography of both places R&C cite rocky features which might justify this meaning; but again, there are no other traces of this in toponymy, and it is clear from LHEB 513 that the assimilation -nd- > -nn- in British began in the late fifth century, hence much too late for it to be shown in Romano-British names (see, however, VINDOLANDA for a possible example of such an assimilation in Latin).

The best solution may be to turn to onno-*onna 'stream, water', despite the objections of Celtic authorities. This word appears in the Vienna Glossary as onno = 'flumen'. GPN 370-71 lists personal names Onna, Onnio, etc., and there is Onna. . . (presumably the owner's name) as a graffito eut before firing on a jar from Sutton Courtenay (Berkshire) reported in JRS, LVI (1966), 224. While only one other place-name (see below) has Onna as an independent name, Whatmough DAG 578 draws attention to the large number of place-names, especially river-names, which end in -onna. The objection of Ellis Evans, Whatmough and others to accepting that all these contain onno 'flumen' of the Glossary is that Celtic cognates are lacking ; but this problem seems to have been resolved by Dauzat in TF 118-21. Of onno, *onna 'cours d'eau, source' he says that it was not originally a Celtic word, but a Gaulish borrowing from an earlier language that was not only pre-Celtic but perhaps pre-Iberian too (that is, with respect to regions occupied), in view of the river One < Onna (Louchon, France; a Gascon area). Since it was used as a second element especially, in e.g. Valdone, Vallone, it came to be taken as a mere suffîx, as in Bebronna 'beaver-river', Calonna > Chalonnes, Sauconna > Saône; and often appears as -umna in river-names such as Vultumna, Garumna, since there is hesitation between o and u (u)) in inscriptions (-mn- spellings represent hypercorrection, since it is known that Garonna is an earlier form than Garumna). This root might still be Indo-European, says Dauzat, if *onna represents a more ancient *wonda, from the same root as Latin unda. He regards onna as a simple variation of basic onno. If this root was borrowed into Gaulish from an earlie language and widely used for naming purposes, its presence in British toponymy should cause no surprise. See also EC, XIV (1975), 445.

IDENTIFICATION. Unknown. The name is listed between Noviomagus (Chichester) and Venta Belgarum (Winchester), so that the possibilities include the Roman defended site at Iping, Sussex (SU 8426), on the river Rother, and the settlemcnt at Neatham, Hampshire (SU 7340), on the Wey. Either of these is more likely, both in position and in importance, than R&C's suggestion of Nursling, Hampshire (SU 3616), on the Test (which was where Crawford lived).

Extrait de Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain

Les deux points bleus indiquent Nursling et Iping

Étude selon Rivet & Smith, p 433 : "Ptolemy, II,3,10 : Eulimenon kolpon (acc.), which repeas the entry of II,3,4 where the same bay is related to the Gabrantovices. il the medieval Latin translation of Ptolemy tne adjective eulimenos 'suitable for a harbour' is represented as oportunus at Ii,3,10, and as portusus at II,3,4. See GABRANTOVICUM SINUS"

Rivet & Smith, p 434 : 

- Diodore de Sicile, V,2& : Orkan ( = Orcadem); 

- Ptolémée, II,3,1 : Tarouedoun e kai Orkas akra ( = Tarvedum sive Orcas Promontarium);

- Ptolémée, II,3,4 : Meta to Tarouedoun akron e ten Orkada ( = Post Tarvedum Promontorium sive Orcadem); 

- Ptolémée, II,3,14 : Kata ten Orkada akron ( = Ad Orcadem Promontorium); 

- Marcien, II,45 : Orkados ( = Orcas).

Rivet & Smith précisent : (si l'on se réfère à) l'usage de Ptolémée, ce nom désigne Dunnet head.

Mais ils suivent en disant : " ... but see p. 115".

Leur propos, à cette page 115 : "Bolerium must, from Diodorus's reference to tin (p.63), be situated in Cornwall, but it does not follow that Ptolemy is correct in making it Lands End rather than the Lizard, since the absence of references to Ocrinum may mean that it was a relatively unimportant cape. Orcas is thoroughly suspect as a promontary name and may originally have been adopted as a term of convenience to describe that part of Britain nearest to the Orcades islands".

- R. Soulignac, Calètes, plan page 30.

Orne : rivière de Normandie. Elle prend sa source à Aunou, près de Séez, arrose Sées, Argentan, Écouché, Putanges, Pont d'Ouilly, Clécy, Thury-Harcourt, Caen, et se jette dans la Manche à Ouistreham, après un cours de 140 km, selon DUHG,  158 km selon Ad. Johanne, 152 km selon Petit Larousse; 158 km selon M. Grandin.

Le nom le plus ancien qu'on lui connaisse est Olina, donné par Ptolémée. Michel Grandin donne la forme Olna.

Dauzat, Deslandes, et Rostaing, donnent comme base étymologique la "base hydronymique *ol- (voir Odon), avec suffixe atone pré-latin -ina". 

Autres noms basés sur cette même racine, selon ces auteurs : Oudon, (+ variante Loudon), Lot, Olip, Orne, Oust, Olonne, Ollière, Oudan, Oudrache, auxquels ils rattachent par parallélisme : Allier, Elle, Ill, etc., 

*****

Discussion étymologique : 

Une discussion est en effet provoquée par une mention écrite de Ptolémée, désignant la capitale des Viducasses, peuple gaulois de Gaule armoricaine : Biducassiorum Aregenua. aujourd'hui Vieux, dans le département du Calvados, sur l'Orne, en normandie.

Les thèmes d'AREGENUA et de VIEUX vont faire l'objet de pages spéciales. Lien actif :

*****

Références bibliographiques : 

M.N Bouillet : Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie. Hachette. 1863.

Adolphe Johanne : Département du Calvados. Hachette. 1880.

Petit Larousse illustré. 1979.

Albert Dauzat; Gaston Deslandes; Charles Rostaing : Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de rivières et de montagnes en France. Éditions Klincksieck. 1978.

A.L.F Rivet & Colin Smith : The Place-names of Roman Britain. Batsford Ltd. London. 1979 / 1982. (article consacré à la station romaine Olenacum / Olicana).

Loïc Langouet : Les Coriosolites. Centre régional d'archéologie d'Alet. St Malo. 1988.

Michel Grandin : Rivières de France. Histoire et portraits. Éditions François Bourin. Paris. 1993.

A. Leduque, Ambianie, p 169 : "Il est fait mention d'Oust-Marest dans la Vita de S. Valery, oeuvre du XIè siècle, en ces termes : "pervenit ad locum qui dicitur Augusta, juxta Auvae fluvium" (l'Auve). Il y aurait détruit des idoles et construit une église magnifique, peut-être avec les matériaux d'un temple..."

Étymologie :

- ? : Augusta; Agusta 750-775; Aouste 1269;

- DR : Agusta, 775; Aouste, 1224; "nom d'homme latin Augustus."

- Ghislain Gaudefroy, LP, N° 86-87, p 18 : "Agusta ... est mentionnée à côté de Brittennevalle (actuel Berneval) et d'autres localités non identifiées, comme étant in pago Tellao".

- L. Sagebien, LP, N° 145, p 3 : Augusta villa Ambianorum, 662; Augusta, 775; Austa, 1123; Outh, c. 1100; Aout, Ouste, 1282; Oustemarrest, XIIIè s.

- Maurice Lebègue, LP 146 : "... de l'anthroponyme latin Augustus, probablement en l'honneur de l'empereur romain Auguste; ce fut aussi le cas pour Aouste (08 et 26), pour Aoste (38) et Aoste (ville du Piémont) ..."

- Obseneford, dans le roman de Ciglès ou la Fausse morte, p. 115