< Reconstruction:Proto-Brythonic
Reconstruction:Proto-Brythonic/Uɨsk
Proto-Brythonic
Etymology
From Proto-Celtic *ɸēskos (“fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *peysḱ-. This inherited term was supplanted as the generic word for "fish" by *pɨsk, a borrowing from Latin piscis, but survives as a fossilized term in a number of toponyms.
Proper noun
*Uɨsk
- A river name, perhaps originally meaning "abundant in fish". [1][2][3]
Descendants
- Middle Welsh: Wÿsk
- Welsh: Wysg
- → English: Usk
- → English: Axe
- → English: Esk
- → Old English: Ex[4]
- English: Exe
- → Latin: Isca
Derived terms
- *kaɨr (“fort”) + *Uɨsk
- *Kaɨruɨsk (“Exeter”)
- Middle Cornish: Caresk, Karesk
- Cornish: Karesk
- Welsh: Caerwysg
- Middle Cornish: Caresk, Karesk
- *Kaɨruɨsk (“Exeter”)
References
- Witcombe, Richard (2009). Who was Aveline anyway?: Mendip's Cave Names Explained (2nd ed.). Priddy: Wessex Cave Club.
- Eilert Ekwall (1981). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names. Oxford [Eng.]: OUP. p. 171.
- Owen, H.W. & Morgan, R. 2007 Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales Gomer Press, Ceredigion; Gwasg Gomer / Gomer Press; page 484.
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) , “Ex”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.