The River-Names of Europe - Robert Ferguson

1.	England.	The Lug. Hereford.
	Wales.	The Looe. Two rivers.
	France.	The Loue. Dep. Haute Vienne.
	Germany.	Louch(aha), 11th cent. The Laucha.
	Germany.	Loua, 10th cent., not identified.
	Holland.	The Lave.
	Finland.	The Luga or Louga.
2.	With the ending en.
	England.	The Lune. Lancashire.
		The Laine. Cornwall.
		The Leven. Two rivers.
	Scotland.	The Leven. Two rivers.
	Ireland.	The Lagan, near Belfast.
	France.	Luna ant., now the Loing.
	Germany.	Logan(aha), 8th cent., now the Lahn.
	Germany.	The Lowna in Prussia.
	Norway.	The Lougan. Joins the Glommen.
	Norway.	The Louven. Stift Christiana.
	Russia.	The Lugan.
	Italy.	The Lavino.
	Italy.	The lake Lugano.
	India.	The Loony—here?
3.	With the ending er.
	Scotland.	The Lugar. Ayr.
	Wales.	The Lloughor. Glamorgan.

To the above root I also place the following, corresponding more distinctly with Welsh llifo, to pour.

1.	Ireland.	The Liffey by Dublin.
	Germany.	Luppia, 1st cent. The Lippe.
	Germany.	The Lip(ka). Bohemia.
2.	With the ending er.
	England.	The Liver. Cornwall.
	Scotland.	The Liver. Argyle.
	Ireland.	The Liffar.

More remotely with the Sansc. lî, liquere, and directly with Welsh lleithio, to moisten, llyddo, to pour, Gael. lith, a pool, smooth water, Goth. leithus, Ang.-Sax. lidh, liquor, poculum, potus, I connect the following. The rivers themselves hardly seem to bear out the special idea of smoothness, which we might be apt to infer from the root, and from the character of the mythological river Lethe.

1.	England.		The Lid. Joins the Tamar.
	Scotland.		The Leith. Co. Edinburgh.
	Wales.		The Laith, now called the Dyfr.
	Germany.		Lit(aha), 11th cent. The Leitha.
	Sweden.		The Lida.
	Hungary.		The Leitha. Joins the Danube.
	Asia Minor.	}	Lethæus ant., three rivers—here?
	Thessaly.
	Crete.
2.	With the ending en.
	England.		The Lidden (Leden, Cod. Dip.) Worcester.
	Scotland.		The Leithan. Peebles.
3.	With the ending el.
3.	Scotland.		The Liddle. Joins the Esk.

From the Sansc. nî, to move, comes nîran, water, corresponding with the Mod. Greek νερόν of the same meaning. And that the Greek word is no new importation into that language, we may judge by the name of Nereus, a water-god, the son of Neptune. The Gr. ναω, fluo, the Gael. nigh, to bathe, to wash, and the Obs. Gael. near, water, a river, show a close relationship; the Heb. nhar, a river, also seems to be allied. Compare the Nore, a name given to part of the estuary of the Thames, with the Narra, the name of the two branches by which the Indus flows into the sea. Also with the Nharawan, an ancient canal from the Tigris towards the Persian Gulf. And with the Curische Nehrung, a strip of land which separates the lagoon called the Curische Haf in Prussia from the waters of the Baltic. On this name Mr. Winning remarks,[17] "I offer the conjecture that the word nehrung is equivalent to our break-water, and that it is derived from the Sabine (or Old Prussian) term neriene, strength, bravery." I should propose to give it a meaning analogous, but rather different—deriving it from the word in question, nar or ner, water, and some equivalent of Old Norse engia, coarctare, making nehrung to signify "that which confines the waters" (of the lake). In all these cases there is something of the sense of an estuary, or of a channel communicating with the sea—the Curische Haf being a large lagoon which receives the river Niemen, and discharges it by an outlet into the Baltic. The following names I take to be for the most part of Celtic origin.

1.	England.	The Now. Derbyshire.
		The Nar. Norfolk.
		The Nore, part of the estuary the Thames.
	Ireland.	Neagh. A lake, Ulster.
	Ireland.	Nore. Joins the Shannon.
	Germany.	Nor(aha), 8th cent., also called the Naha.
	Italy.	Nar [18] ant. The Nera.
	Spain.	The Nerja. Malaga.
	Russia.	The Nar(ova), and the Narew.
	Europ. Turkey.	Naro ant., now the Narenta.
	Mauretania.	Nia ant., now the Senegal—here?
	Hindostan.	Narra, two branches of the Indus—here?
2.	With the ending en, = Sansc. nîran, water?
	Illyria.	The Naron.
	Scotland.	The Naren or Nairn.
3.	With the ending es.
3.	Germany.	The Neers. Rhen. Pruss.

From the Sansc. nî, to move, Gael. nigh, to bathe, to wash, comes, I apprehend, the Welsh nannaw, nennig, nant, a small stream.

England.	The Nene or Nen. Northampton.
England.	The Nent. Cumberland.
Ireland.	The Nenagh. Joins the Shannon.
France.	The Nenny.

Closely allied to nî, to move, I take to be Sansc. niv, to flow, Welsh nofio, to swim, to float, whence the names undermentioned. The Novius of Ptolemy, supposed to be the Nith, if not a false rendering, might come in here.