MONEY,
a frequent prefix in Irish names from muine (a brake or shrubbery); e.g. Moneymore, Moneybeg (the great and little shrubbery); Moneygorm (the blue shrubbery); Moneyduff (the black or dark shrubbery); Moneygall (the shrubbery of the strangers).
MONT, MONTE (Fr. and It.),
MONTANA and MONTE (Span. and Port.),
a mountain, from the Lat. mons, and cognate with the Gadhelic monadh, and the Cym.-Cel. mynydd; e.g. Montalto (high mount); Montauban (the mount of Albanus); Montechiaro (clear mount); Monte-fosoli (brown mount); Montehermosa (beautiful mount), in Spain; Montenegro, Turc. Karadagh, Sclav. Zerna-gora (black mount), in Turkey; Beaumont, Chaumont, Haumont (the beautiful, bald, and high mount); Montereale and Montreal (the royal hill); Montreal, in Canada, so named by Cartier in 1555; Monte-Rosa, anc. Mons-sylva (woody hill); Monte-Video (the prospect mount); Montmartre, anc. Mons-Martyrum (the hill of the martyrdom of St. Denis), but its earlier name was Mons-Martis (the hill of Mars); Montmirail, Lat. Mons-mirabilis (the wonderful mountain); Remiremont, Lat. Romaries-mons, founded by St. Romarie in 620; Monte-Cavallo, corrupt. from Monte-Calvaria (the Mount of Calvary), so called from a number of chapels, in which were represented the successive scenes of our Lord’s passion. From monticellus, the diminutive of mont, have arisen such place-names as Moncel, Le Monchel, Monchelet, etc.; Mont d’Or (golden mount), in Auvergne; Montefrio (cold mount), in Spain; Montpellier, Lat. Mons-puellarum (the hill of the young girls), so called from two villages belonging to the sisters of St. Fulcrum; Montserrat (the serrated hill); Clermont (bright hill); Mondragon and Montdragone (the dragon’s hill); Monfalcone (hawk hill); Mons, Ger. Berghen (hill town), in Belgium; Piedmont (at the foot of the Alps); Floremont or Blumenberg (flowery hill), in Alsace; Montaign and Monthen, anc. Mons-acutus (sharp or peaked hill); Montigny, Montignac (mountainous); Jeumont, anc. Jovismons (the hill of Jove), in France; Mount Pilatus (the mount with the cap of clouds, from pileus, Lat. a felt cap); Richmond, in Yorkshire, named from a castle in Brittany, from which the Earl of Richmond took his title, meaning the rich or fertile hill; Richmond, in Surrey, named by the Earl after his Yorkshire estate, formerly called Shene from the splendour of the royal residence there, seine, A.S. (splendid); Righimont, in Switzerland, corrupt. from Mons-regius (royal hill); Montacute (sharp hill), in Somerset; Tras-os-Montes (beyond the hills), in Portugal; Apremont, in France, for Aspromonte (rough hill); Pyrmont, corrupt. from Mons-Petrus (St. Peter’s mount); Montferrato (the fortified hill). Mont also signified a hill fort, like berg and dun, as in Montalcino (the fort of Alcinous), in Italy; Montgomery, in Wales, (the fortress of Roger de Montgomerie, who erected a castle there in 1093)—its earlier name was Tre-Faldwyn (the dwelling of Baldwin, a Norman knight); Charlemont, in France, named after Charles V.; Henrichemont, after Henri-Quatre. In Wales: the town of Mold, abbreviated from Mons-altus (high fort)—the Normans built a castle there; Mynydd-du (black hill); Mynydd-mawr (great hill); Mynydd-moel (bald hill). In Scotland: Monadh-ruadh (the red mount or the mounth), the Gaelic name for the Grampians; Mount Battock, Gael. Monadh-beatach (the raven’s hill); Mountbenjerlaw, in Selkirkshire, originally Ben-Yair (the hill of the R. Yair), to which the A.S. law and the Norman mount were added. But monadh in Gael. signifies a mountain range, and sometimes a moor, as Monadh-leath (the gray mountain range). Probably Mendip, in Somerset, is the deep hill, Welsh dwfn and mynydd; Monimail (bald hill); Monifieth (the hill or moor of the deer, feidh). The Mourne Mountains, in Ireland, means the mountains of the tribe; Mughhorna. Mon, in the Basque language, also signifies a hill, and is found in Monzon, an ancient town of Spain, with a hill fort; Monda and Mondonedo, in Spain; and Mondego, in Portugal; and in Carmona (hill summit), in Spain.
MOOS (Ger.),
MOS (Scand.),
MECH, MOCK (Sclav.),
mossy ground; e.g. Donaumoss (the mossy meadow of the Danube); Mosston (the town on the mossy ground); Moseley (moss-field or valley); Moscow, on the R. Moskwa (mossy water); Mossow, Mehzo, Mochow, Mochlitz (the mossy ground); Mohacs, Ger. Margetta (the marshy or mossy island), in the Danube; Miesbach (the district of the mossy brook), in Bavaria. The Irish word mæthail (soft mossy land) is almost synonymous with these roots. It is found in Mohill, Co. Leitrim; Mothel in Waterford, and Mothell in Kilkenny; Cahermoyle (the stone fort of the mossy land) in Ireland, and in Muthil in Perthshire.
MOR, MOER (Teut. and Scand.),
waste land, heath; Scot. muir; e.g. Moorby, Morton, and Moreton (the dwelling on the moor); Morpeth (the moor path); Oudemoor (the old moor), and Oostmoer (east moor), in Holland; Moorlinch (the moor ridge, hlinc); Lichtenmoer (the cleared moor); Muirkirk (the church in the moor), in Argyleshire; Murroes, corrupt. from Muirhouse, a parish in Co. Forfar; Tweedsmuir (the moor at the source of the R. Tweed), a parish in Peeblesshire; Muiravonside (the mossy land on the banks of the R. Avon), in Stirlingshire.
MOR (Gadhelic),
MAWR (Cym.-Cel.), or by mutation fawr; e.g. Morlais for Mawr-clais (the great trench), the name of a ruined castle near Cardiff, built above a deep gully, through which a brook passes.
great; e.g. Morven (the great ben or hill), a hill in Caithness and also in Aberdeenshire; Morven or Morvern, i.e. Mor-Earrain (the great district), in Argyleshire, called by the Gaels Kenalban, corrupt. from Cenealbaltyn, i.e. the tribe of Baldan, a personal name; Kenmore (the great headland), on Loch Tay; Penmaen-mawr (the great stone-hill), in Wales.