Dolocindo
Attested: Dolocindo at position 28 in the Ravenna Cosmography
Where: Crandon Bridge, ST330400, a Roman-era port now silted up some distance from the river Parrett in the Somerset Levels (Rippon, 2008).
Name origin: PIE *delə-/*dol- ‘to divide’ contributed to many later place names in the sense of sharing out of resources, especially beside a river. Dolemeads beside the river Avon at Bath is a good example. The -cindo part is more difficult: Latin scindo ‘to cut’ from PIE skei- seems the most likely parallel, ahead of Old English cinan ‘to split into pieces’, or a meaning like ‘first’ seen in Cindocellum. The resulting sense of ‘deal-and-cut’ would fit the “trans-shipment port where goods brought by road and river through Somerset were loaded onto larger vessels that could cross the Bristol Channel” description of Rippon (2008).
Notes: The core meaning of Dol- has been preserved by English dole, deal, and dal (Indic for split peas). Bede used Irish daal ‘part’ to explain Dalriada, but Gaelic dail, dalloch, etc (Watson, 1926:414-418) generally moved on to the derived sense of ‘meadow’, as did Welsh dôl and northern English dale. Latin dolo ‘to chip’ had vowel O but its derived senses went towards pain. See here for a general discussion of ancient names in Somerset.
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Last edited 16 April 2023 To main Menu