[Stones] Cerne Abbas Homer Simpson

[Ric]

Fascinating,

the Celtic river would also have had a presiding
deity, but that doesn't mean it would necessarily
carry the divinity's name ... like the Thames
(Tamessis) just seems to mean 'flowing one', [Rivet
and Smith]? Mind you, 'flowing one' might also
conceivably be a personal name?

;)

thanks,

Ric

--- Andy Norfolk <andy.norfolk at connectfree.co.uk>
wrote:


---------------------------------
    A bit more on the derivation of Cerne. In Ekwall's
Concise  OxfordDictionary of English Place Names he
says much the same as Mills but inmore detail. 

"Like Char, Charn, as derivative of Welsh carn 'rock,
stones'.The form to be expected is Charn or Chern.
Cerne is dueto Norman influence."

In Cornish dialect carn means a fishing ground with a
rocky orstony bottom, so it seems likely to me that
the river Cerne had a rockyor stony bed when it was
named.

Andy N