Toponymy

Toponymy is the taxonomic study of toponyms (place-names), their origins and their meanings. The word is derived from the Greek τόπος topos, place, and oνομα ōnoma, name. It is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds.

A toponym is a name of a locality, region, or some other part of Earth's surface or an artificial feature. In some cultures, most or all such place names have a definite meaning in the language; this is not the case, generally, for place names in the English language.

In linguistics and ethnology, a toponym is a name derived from a place or a region. In anatomy, a toponym is a name of a region of the body, as distinguished from the name of an organ. In biology, a toponym is a binomial name of a plant.

Toponymist

A toponymist is one who studies toponymy. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first occurrence of the word "toponymist" can be dated roughly to the middle of the nineteenth century. It can be argued that the first toponymists were the storytellers and poets who explained the origin of certain place names in order to elucidate their tales; sometimes place-names served as the basis for the legends themselves. The process of folk etymology usually took over, whereby a false meaning was extracted from a name based on its structure or sounds. Thus, the toponym of Hellespont was explained by Greek poets as being named after Helle, daughter of Athamas, who drowned here as she crossed it with her brother Phrixus on a flying golden ram. The name, however, most likely is derived from an older language, such as Pelasgian, which was unknown to those who explained its origin. George Rippey Stewart theorized, in his book Names on the Globe, that Hellespont originally meant something like "narrow Pontus" or "entrance to Pontus," "Pontus" being an ancient name for the region around the Black Sea, and by extension, for the sea itself.

Toponymists attempt to approximate the original meaning of a place-name, their conclusions often competing with popular or spurious etymologies that may sound more poetic or attractive to tourists. Thus, the river-name “Mississippi” is claimed to mean “Father of the Waters” (though it may simply mean “Big River”), the state name “Idaho” was said to mean "Gem of the Mountains" (though it may be merely an invented name), and the city name "Vladivostok" is Russian for "Command the East" (though this is often rendered as "Lord of the East").

Toponymists are sometimes used by governments in order to verify the accuracy of certain names as used by cartographers, the media, researchers, publishers, and their duties also include the inputting of new names into databases and topographical maps.

Noted toponymists

References

George Rippey Stewart, Names on the Globe (1975).

External links

Place names | Toponymy

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Toponymist

Noted toponymists

See also

References

External links