Δεκανται
Attested: Ptolemy 2,3,12 Δεκανται or δε Κανται
Where: People in north-east Scotland, probably in the Tarbat promontory between Dornoch Firth and Moray Firth.
Name origin: Greek δε, a copulative particle that could mean ‘and, but, etc’, occurs often in that part of Ptolemy's text, leaving plain Κανται to fit the shape of Tarbat, similar to Καντιον Kent. Like most of Ptolemy's tribal names this would be outsiders' description of a particular area.
Notes: There may have been another group with a similar name in North Wales, where Druids were strong, because one manuscript of the Cambrian Annals mentioned De cantorum for AD 812 and Arcem detantorum for 822, which are usually related to Degannwy Castle, in the mediaeval cantref of Tegeingl, which contained the lead/silver-mining area attributed to people called *Deceangli.
Hypotheses that now seem unlikely include:
- Irish dech ‘best, noblest’ (Watson, 1926:18), related to δικαιος ‘righteous’, decent, etc.
- A word for ‘looking out’ might begin like the Hindi-English word dekko, possibly from PIE *derk- ‘to see’ as in Condecor.
- Latin decanto ‘to chant, enchant, say over and over again’. All pre-literate Indo-European societies had a class of bards trained to memorise prodigious amounts of sacred poetry that needed to be chanted aloud, as explained by Olmsted.
- Initial deca- ‘ten’ might make the name refer to tithing.
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