ETYMOLOGY
according to subjects, was at the same time their meth-
odological guide and their practical model. Isidore’s
philosophy is briefly: Omnis enim rei inspectio etymo-
logia cognita planior est. (The investigation of every
thing is clearer once the etymology is known.) (Etym. I
19,2; see also I 7,1.)
In Irish texts etymologies are found as part of inter-
linear and marginal glosses or they are integrated into
the text as, for instance, the explanations of technical
terms at the beginning of the legal text Críth Gablach.
Etymology is either implicit or identified as such.
There are general collections (alphabetically arranged
like book X “De vocabulis” of the Etymologiae) such
asCormac’s Glossary and specialized collections such
as the legal O’Davoren’s Glossary, which includes
valuable quotations, or the more elaborately explained
names (epithets) of famous persons in Cóir Anmann
(The Correctness of Names). The self-contained ety-
mological origin tales of the names of places, in prose
and verse versions, are called Dinnsenchas (The Lore of
Famous Places). In the prehistoric (“synthetic”) part
ofthe Irish history book An Lebar Gabála(The Book
of Invasions; Invasion Myth) whole sections originate
in this type of etymology—see, for instance, the expla-
nation of Scotti(i.e., the Irish) from Scythi(otherwise
also from Pharaoh’s daughter Scotta).
In double-barreled place names the element after
generics like dún(fort) or sliab(mountain) was usually
interpreted as the name of a person. Thus in the Ulster
epicTáin Bó Cuailngeat a place called Áth Buide (pre-
sumably, The Yellow Ford) Cú Chulainn killed an adver-
sary by the name of Buide; therefore the ford was called
Áth Buide(Buide’s Ford), as is explicitly stated. In Betha
Senáin (The Life of St. Senáin) the name of his island,
Inis Chathaig(Scattery Island), is elaborately explained
through the presence and activities of a monster called
Cathach, which he expelled.
The presence of etymology in all types of Irish texts
and, particularly, its contribution to the growth of medi-
eval Irish literature deserve further investigation.
ROLF BAUMGARTENReferences and Further Reading
Arbuthnot, Sharon. “Short Cuts to Etymology: Placenames in
Cóir Anmann.”Ériu: Founded as the Journal of the School
of Irish Learning 50 (1999): 79–86.
Baumgarten, Rolf. “Placenames, Etymology, and the Structure
ofFianaigecht.” In The Heroic Process—Form, Function and
Fantasy in Folk Epic: Proceedings of the International Folk
Epic Conference, University College Dublin, 2–6 September
1985 , edited by Bo Almqvist et al., 1–24. Dún Laoghaire
(County Dublin): Glendale Press, 1987 [also in Béaloideas:
The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society 54 − 55
(1986−1987): 1–24].
——. “Etymological Aetiology in Irish Tradition.” Ériu 41
(1990): 115–122.
——. “Creative Medieval Etymology and Irish hagiography
(Lasair, Columba, Senán).” Ériu54 (2004): [forthcoming].
Herren, Michael. “On the Earliest Irish Acquaintance with
Isidore of Seville.” In Visigothic Spain: New Approaches,
edited by Edward James. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Hillgarth, Jocelyn N. “Ireland and Spain in the Seventh Cen-
tury.” Peritia: Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland
3 (1984): 1–16.
Lindsay, Wallace M. Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX
Isidori Hispalensis episcopi (Scriptorum Classicorum Bib-
liotheca Oxoniensis). 2 vols. Oxford: 1911. Republished,
with Spanish translation and notes, by José Oroz Reta and
Manuel-A. Marcos Casquero, San Isidoro de Sevilla:
Etimologías—Edición Bilingüe; Introducción General by
Manuel C. Díaz y Díaz (Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos,
Vols 433–434). 2 vols. Madrid: 1982–1983.
Russell, Paul. “The Sounds of a Silence: The Growth of Cor-
mac’s Glossary.”Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 15
(1988): 1–30.See alsoBiblical and Church Fathers Scholarship;
Dinnsenchas; Glosses; Invasion Myth