Vertis

Attested:  Vertis at position 64 in the Ravenna Cosmography

Where:  Probably Worcester, around SO851545, where there was a Roman civilian settlement and a node in the road network, near where the river Teme joins the Severn.

Name origin:  Ver- in early names could have many meanings, but possibly the best parallel here is Latin verto ‘to turn back’, referring to the tidal limit of the river Severn near Worcester.

Notes:  The Severn and Teme are both wiggly rivers near here, and nearby Cruckbarrow Hill was perhaps an indigenous power centre, thereby offering two alternative possible reasons for a ver- name.  Worcester is probably unrelated to Vertis, but may derive from Anglo-Saxon Weogorna, which suggests a weoh ‘idol’ (something that the Christian church would have destroyed) on a gore ‘point of land’.  The Historia Brittonum, written in the 800s in Wales, mentions cair guirangon (Fitzpatrick-Matthews, 2015), which looks like a compound of Old English *wer ‘man’ and ing/eng ‘water-meadow’.

You may copy this text freely, provided you acknowledge its source as www.romaneranames.uk, recognise that it is liable to human error, and try to offer suggestions for improvement.
Last edited 9 April 2020     to main Menu